The Courageous Brigade - Road To Somewhere
by MysticaL-AceR
Summary: Earth has been burnt down to crisp by another meteor unleashing a new era of post-apocalyptic life. Mad Max style. Losing the pink hound's owners, Courage and his allies survived forming up as a team. But the new ruler of Nowhere Ruins and the rest of the country wasteland, Mad Dog isn't going to make their new life easier.
1. Prologue Plot Summary

_FanFiction based on -Courage The Cowardly Dog- owned by **John R. Dilworth / CN**_

_Story written by **MysticaL-AceR** (AceOfSpeed94 on Deviantart)_

**_RATED: T for Drama and Minor Violence._**

Artwork Cover For this Fanfiction on my dA Link:

aceofspeed94/art/The-Courageous-Brigade-Road-To-Somewhere-Cover-821640565

* * *

**The Courageous Brigade - Road To Somewhere**

* * *

It seems that the world apocalypse has begun when another meteor has stricken upon Earth, almost half-size of the planet. However instead of making the globe rotating around the Sun in high speed 1000 years in the future after impact, it unleashed a tremendous shock-wave force annihilating almost everything within its path of meteor's range. After first wave of disaster, the huge meteor was shredded to pieces forming a shower rain of flaming tiny meteors all over the world.

Earth was burnt into crisp, but it pretty much shaken the rest of the population who may have survived after being knocked away from Sun's radius a little bit. Moment of silence has been settled down upon affected cities, villages, humanity and animal casualties. At least it didn't finished off the entire race of existence just like the dinosaurs.

In Nowhere (or so it was), only pile of crumbling down buildings were left, with broken down streets, smoke rising up polluting the air 24/7 as the sky was all red looking like blood and fire. The weather was most likely giving waves of sandstorms with thunders and lightnings, one after another. Buried vehicles and houses with skeletons under the sand and it became more of a post-apocalyptic wasteland since the incident. Whoever survived the catastrophe was very lucky, but unlikely to survive any longer. It would take a very long time as they live to sob on their lost beloved ones or their memories. Food and water has been running scarce, while gas and oil remained the precious resources to have ever owned. Some animals seemed to survive more than humans.

As we fast forward in time through sand storms and sudden weather changing conditions, the planet was recovering slowly as the remaining survivors were about to re-enter a new era of life in the post-apocalyptic environments. Where it used to be located the Bagge Farm, there was Courage who survived and awaken from under lairs of wooden planks. Crying the soul out of him and screaming from many miles away. For he had lost his owners Muriel and Eustace along with the farmhouse being destroyed once he finally woke up from the disaster. Lots of planks and house holdings were lying on the ground scattered everywhere. Only thing left that seemed to be intact on the surface was Eustace's truck cabin and a computer processor chip still in a good shape. Half of the vehicle was snapped in two with broken down engine and it became more of a rust bucket.

The windmill being destroyed as well, could trigger the Windmill Vandals to arrive anytime once more from the dead during night time only, but when the sun sets up, they vanish. Courage had to hide underground from them many nights straight since the basement of the farmhouse was also buried in sand. He was too weak as if a plague just hit him like a train, to reconstruct everything back to normal all by himself. Dizzy, unable to stand up as the pink hound was still limping after awakening, he was somehow still recovering.

Courage's attempts to find and recover his owners has been interrupted when a pack of vicious wardogs, some of them were riding motorcycles even, came on sight to attack him and scavenge the area for their delight. Courage had no power of standing up against the wild pack, as he was knocked out easily due to loss of his mind and will, leaving him with a scar on his left eye done by one of dog's claws. After being unconscious again for many hours, he woke up captured in an almost intact industrial building all tied up in chains against a wall. He had to meet face to face with no one other than... Mad Dog.

After screaming in terror, of course Courage would recognize him after that intense train crash, but seeing how M.D. survived as well after that collision and the apocalypse, it was never a good sign! A huge amount of cold fear was running down on Courage's spine after he saw most of M.D.'s face was disfigured and his muzzle was replaced with heavy metallic muzzle with razor-sharp fangs that could tear apart not only flesh and bones, but rough metal structures as well. Apparently he looked a lot more buffed up than his previous look and has spikey dog collars attached to his shoulders, most likely the dog was mutated from meteor's shock wave.

Inside Mad Dog's little hideout in the industrial area, were the most valuable objects that he could ever scavenge from Nowhere Ruins, such as diamonds, good amount of scrap, history relics and population belongings, among them including... Shirley's saxophone? That didn't sound good either when Courage noticed it too, but Mad Dog didn't bother to notice its magic abilities. M.D. just took out an old wedding picture of Muriel and Eustace out of his pocket, along with a much older picture of Courage's parents, to mock Courage around. Infuriating the pink hound by licking them with gross saliva! He noticed how they meant very much to Courage and therefor the heartless dog took the mementos with him to remind Courage who's in control of authority around here.

Mad Dog had dog camps with gangs controlling almost every part of Nowhere Ruins and reconstructed oil wells around nearby other destroyed cities, for profit and fuel for their bikes. The meteor must have brought to Earth a huge amount of resources to be harvested by the luckiest survivor to lay its hands on. His main objective was still unchanged and determined to find Bunny if she was okay after the disaster and eliminate Kitty if she survived. Some things never change.

But Mad Dog wasn't standing around too long facing his well-deserved revenge on Courage since he helped Bunny escape, just thinking about that he smacked down Courage's face a few times leaving him ugly and painful bruises enough for Courage to start growling in fury. Instead, Mad Dog was packing up everything (his gold and other valuable stuff he had scavenged) to hit the road far away on finding Bunny himself since he wasn't too very fond of his gang on succeeding his objective. With that occasion he would return to his real "citadel" set up specially for both him and Bunny, over where Washington D.C. used to be. And that would be the exact location where the huge meteor just hit.

Metal-fanged dog thought that if he would be able to gain all the wealth of the world that has been left after the apocalypse and earn respect from the survivors he had enslaved (which is unlikely), he would triumph over Bunny's heart and rule over the wastelands, even if Bunny didn't liked it. And if she didn't survived, Mad Dog would still kill whoever opposes his canine dominance he had proved to survive through years of saving dogs alike him to join his side. Since he had all the resources and factories he had stocked overtime. If Kitty was dead by now, he would consider it already mission accomplished but he would have to make sure still.

Now that he had full control over the most entire country, he would travel to check if everything is under control. Therefor his guards took Courage out from the chains and locked him up in a cell to rot for all eternity. Surprisingly his cellmate was the Hunchback. Could this be the only "human" who survived?

After a chit chat they had together, they came up with a plan of escape and they eventually busted out of the building with diversion. As M.D. gang were chasing after them, they didn't took notice of sniper dogs patrolling the area outside as well but luckily they had bad aim. The wardogs were armed with weapons stolen from abandoned military bases. Courage and Hunchback evaded with minor bruises and bullet scratches losing the tail of its chasers. Mad Dog took no effort on himself recovering his lost prisoners, for he was too busy and ready to go with his monstrosity of a vehicle built by his mechanic who was forced to work for him, Charlie the Mouse a.k.a (the big rodent who punched Le Quack in the face for stinky cheese years ago) He didn't appreciate Mad Dog's company but rather being turned into cat food, he had to obey.

The dog's "chariot" was a mixture of his broken down pink lowrider with Di Lung's red corvette and its wheels were replaced with huge tank tracks stolen from what it used to be out of Dr. Zalost's Tower ruins. Mounted with a tank mortar on the top of the machine too followed by two trailers with goods. On each side of the vehicle were mounted machine guns hidden inside doggy houses mounted on tracks supports. The mechanical legs were rumored to be scavenged by a rival gang faction trying to stand up against M.D. And that's where Katz and his cat followers came in to split territories, during when Courage and other survivors were yet to be awaken. Mad Dog and Katz never came to an agreement to join together which is a relief for Courage.

However he was wondering what if the rest of villains he had faced before or allies he had, would survive as well ? Not only around Nowhere Ruins, but the whole world ? The courageous hound was left in disgust and fully with vengeance to take out M.D. and recover the mementos of his owners and parents he had ever witnessed to be intact. Of course fear was still getting the best of Courage about future consequences, but we all know that he would do everything to keep his friends close, punish the evil, and recover what he had lost overtime... his sanity.

Somehow the mark of his beloved owners being gone changed radically Courage's behavior, even though he wishes not to rely on violence, but when he takes it too long to stand up against any foe he may face, he loses it completely unleashing blood rage in his eyes. And it only depends on him for self-control. Courage would often blame himself for not awakening in time after the impact, to check on Muriel and Eustace. He would worry about Katz later after Mad Dog is finished again this time, once and for all.

As Courage and Hunchback were now been left in peace, walking through miles of occupied dog gang camps along the way in which they avoided. Nowhere Ruins seemed to be more populated in vicious K-9s and ravaging cats making the land less empty than how it originally was. They knew Nowhere like the palm of their hands (and paws), they have stumbled across what was left of County Fair. Courage immediately noticed and found hay-body parts of his old fellow the Scarecrow scattered all over.

He, together with Hunchback was able to put him back together with tools they found on sand covered booths. They were lucky that not everything were been taken away by M.D.'s patrolling gangs. The Scarecrow now fully repaired and recovered couldn't believe his eye buttons to see his old friend Courage again alive and somehow well. After they introduced themselves to Hunchback, Scarecrow learned from Courage that the woman who actually took her willing and kind heart (Muriel) of repairing him in the first time around and he attempted to protect her, was no more.

Therefor the Scarecrow decided to join them, for he didn't had anymore purpose to be left behind in an abandoned County Fair and exposed. And he would be pleased to help Courage find his owners within the range of destroyed Bagge Farm. But their journey back to the farm wasn't so easy, for all they had to do was to hide from the occasional dog patrols passing by. Scarecrow was ready to get on his Commando side of being overprotective of his friends as he still had that instinct, but it was best to not risk of being chewed to pieces by dogs yet, suggested by Courage. Cause the pink hound had a lot worse than he could ever imagine, judging by his eye-scar and bruises all over his body.

Once the trio arrived at the farm ruins, Courage once again began to shed tears as he, Hunchback and Scarecrow have began searching yet with no prevail, as if they have like been vanished off the face of Earth! Just like the rest of the humanity left. Upon the sandy roads were nothing but skeletons, dead plants, car wreckage and torn off buildings. What else could be standing up after the apocalypse ? Hunchback was searching around where the barn was located and yet he found a little bell he used to play with Courage back in the day and kept it, cause all of his bells were stolen by wardogs. No such thing as maximum wealth could ever win Bunny's heart as Mad Dog would think.

Suddenly Courage found the computer processor out of his old technological sarcastic friend that helped him many times, including when the Computer taught Courage how to speak English. And he kept it hopefully he would be able to repair it, but the monitor, keyboard and scanner were destroyed in tiny pieces. The only way he would revive his computer, was if he had to connect the processor into a different intact computer or other operating machine. Things that were very doubtful to find.

Without any luck of finding Courage's owners, the trio gave up believing it was all hopeless and would waste up even more energy out of their bodies. Luckily Scarecrow was made out of hay, he didn't sweat, needed to drink or eat. He was exactly like Computer. Proof that he was once alive again after putting back together confirms that. Hunchback on the other hand, was as old as he ever was, and needed to lean to his stick for stability he found randomly and strapped his bell to it, but he could still walk and run, due to its optimistic behavior he wouldn't let oldness get the best of him. He didn't even wanted to think about food or water for he was used to live like a hobo on the streets before.

On any worse scenario he would feel like steal everything from dog camps they seek. Since the camps were filled mostly with dog food and water, it would be a great chance to sneak upon them one by one taking down the camps along the way to chase after Mad Dog. Sending the vicious dog a message at least. Any sign of food they would find, would be truly welcomed.

Suddenly Courage remembered that if they cannot find his owners, somebody with mystic readings would definitely be useful at this moment. Shirley the Medium... Oh but he only hoped she was okay too. Without further delay, the trio went towards Shirley's wagon. Far away in the outskirts of Nowhere Ruins, Courage, Hunchback and Scarecrow didn't even made it halfway towards the wagon and they stood in shock to see the horrific scene up ahead.

The wagon was also completely destroyed. Just like the farmhouse. Plenty of planks around everywhere, the firepit was no more and lots of rocks and boulders were scattered around. Only a pair of wagon wheels were to be seen intact on the horizon buried in sand. Shards of crystal ball glass were sparkling the entire land. But no sign of Shirley. Until later after searching the area more, Courage noticed a piece of purple cape fabric stuck next to a boulder not far from where the wagon was.

The team rushed towards it and moved the heavy boulder together out of the away, only to finally find the medium laying on the ground still unconscious with lots of damage cuts around her fur skin, clothes, dry blood stains on her mouth and forehead. Scarecrow picked her up close to him, relived to hear that she was still breathing assuring Courage that she'll be fine. But the hound expected the worse. Presuming she was still knocked out and resting, the team had to find blankets and place her on them until she was able to wake up.

Not a moment too soon, the pursuers from the abandoned hideout caught up with them. Therefor another brawl was engaged. The enraged dogs got a taste of their own medicine when Scarecrow stole their bike as soon they parked and attacked. He was running them all over with the bike around the area knowing the shards may pop out the bike's tires. Even though the wardogs were able to dodge his roadkill attempts, that didn't worked out when Hunchback and Courage were able distract them away from Shirley and Scarecrow, giving Scarecrow the final blows. M.D.'s dogs may seem ruthless and evil, but their brains still remained dumb as harmless puppies, once their bike got their tires flat out from crystal ball shards as they tried to run away with it.

Once the coast was clear again, eventually Shirley woke up. In which she originally thought that nobody would ever survive, even herself to be given a chance of second life. The first thing Shirley seen with her eyes open was Courage's face towards her.

Hunchback and Scarecrow were amazed she survived as well! Not everything it seemed to be all hopeless after all but Courage had the urge of still fighting back and restore peace even when it seemed to be the end of the world as they knew. If Mad Dog succeeded in making his own dog empire, they would do the same of breaking down his control and power. Once Shirley began to speak in a very weak voice after awakening and coughing, she revealed afterwards that she wanted to warn everybody about the upcoming apocalypse but nobody believed her.

She foreseen it coming it sooner. But she didn't knew exactly when and how, as her future reading concentration suddenly interrupted when her crystal ball was turning very hot with red boiling steam inside but it didn't blew up, and it resulted her a major headache knocking herself cold, when the disaster already occurred. It was too late. All she could remember were the emblems shown on the crystal ball before the danger happened. A skull shaped rock, bloody fangs and bones, and a white human hand. (The meteor... evil's rule and downfall... and hope.)

Courage understood the medium that it wasn't her fault at all and she shouldn't blame herself. Nobody would have anything to do about it to prevent it, yet Shirley was very glad to see again the sunlight again, despite that there were lots of smoke clouds covering the sky. After Courage introduced his friends to Shirley, sadness washed over her eyes when her home was gone too. Trying to hold up her tears, she felt emptiness from within her robes. Her saxophone was stolen. Everything precious she ever held up inside the wagon were scavenged by the pack of wild dogs. And her crystal ball was smashed to pieces along with its replacements too. Surprisingly Mad Dog's gang didn't had noticed her large golden earring she was still wearing, while she was laying on the ground on her right side, otherwise it would've been a nasty and painful result! But why didn't they saved her too while scavenging, since she was a dog as well? Assuming she was in a "dead state" they left her rot behind the boulder.

After hearing from Courage that her saxophone was taken away by Mad Dog, it wasn't the real time to get upset knowing her behavior of cursing everyone who messed with her or her stuff would solve anything. This was the end after all. Courage suggested Shirley to come along with them back at the farm hopefully to be safe, but she refused and wanted to be alone with hopeless thoughts at first. However the trio, especially Courage convinced her to remain positive assuring that they'll restore everything (if not all) back together. The fact that she lives again for a reason just like the trio, is a sign that even in the end there is still hope. And with hopes up that her mystic readings of finding lost objects at least were still working would be an advantage to save more lives. Even without the crystal ball, she could tell from inner medium instincts but with very low precision without the ball's accuracy.

And it'll take a very long time before she regains fully her consciousness, to recover the ability again to talk with the dead. Shirley dropped her flags down that she would do everything for free now, just to see peace restored once again, or at least how it was before, for it was pointless to charge fees on poor survivors remaining. Only Mad Dog's gang of wardogs would do now such a thing to spare lives of the remaining lost survivors. Animals or humans, it didn't matter. The medium however swore in her mind, that if she ever gets her hands back on her instrument, she will lay the most horrific curse or spell upon that K-9 monster, for all the damage he had tormented many survivor souls, she never thought she'd use, that is if he will live to see it.

Despite the injuries, Shirley indeed helped out the trio finding Muriel and Eustace back at the farm. The poor dog Courage couldn't open his eyes when Hunchback and Scarecrow dragged the skeletons still wearing glasses out of the sand and dirt. It was best for him to not look at all, otherwise he will be left into even more depression forever wishing he would die as well with them. Shirley seen the affection on the dog's eyes, therefor she grabbed Courage in for a hug just so he won't be able to see his owners's bones to collapse into dust. He didn't deserve to see that while he cried a waterfall down from under his eyes. The medium gave Hunchback and Scarecrow an eye sign to quickly create graves for them, before poor Courage would open his eyes again. The funeral went calm while Scarecrow was standing in his Commando suit looking out after possibly incoming intruders. Hunchback, Shirley and Courage mourned for the old Bagge couple resting now in peace.

Scarecrow and Courage were very fond of Muriel and even though Eustace was more of a trouble maker towards them, they accepted the fact that this wasn't deserved at all. There are many ways of punishing a soul for wrong doings, but not this disaster. No matter how much a human can be so cruel one another, an apocalypse affecting almost majority of innocent lives was too much to bear. And torturing in the post-apocalyptic world like Mad Dog would do just to get his love back, would have tragic consequences. If he was smart enough to figure it out that maybe one day an uprising would start over Nowhere Ruins, he would better give up or come to an agreement. Yet none of those were in dog's mind, as the disaster apparently blinded his consciousness.

After the funeral, they all had one purpose. Chasing down Mad Dog to the ends of Earth if they had to, and any villain who stood in their way would think to take control over the lands. Taking down enemy territories and camps for the remaining survivors to occupy providing food and scrap, restoring peace, recover their stolen goods and scavenge for food, gas, water and any useful items to keep them going and live. And for that, they needed a vehicle. Courage and Scarecrow suggested themselves that they could use Eustace's truck cabin and build up like a van from the remaining wooden planks scattered across the farm land.

Shirley reminded them about her wagon wheels still intact and gave them an okay sign to take those and whatever they could find from her land as well. After Courage and Scarecrow left the farm, Hunchback felt the horror after seeing another group of vicious dogs coming after him and Shirley. And the night came upon again with red sky. That could've only mean one thing. Two troubles in one in fact. Mad Dog's gang and Windmill Vandals. They had no idea obvious about the vandals for all they could do is hide inside Eustace's truck cabin. While both dogs and the vandals were duking in it out, Courage and Scarecrow better make it faster before anything goes south from here.

In the meantime, Scarecrow was caring the wagon wheels, some towels and pieces of heavy scrap metal, while Courage was holding up piles of wooden wagon planks and blankets, unaware about the danger was going on in the farm. Courage still broken himself inside of what happened despite his weak condition, he was very determined to not give up. Suddenly an idea stroke upon Scarecrow, if they could fuse Eustace's half truck with what it used to look like Shirley's wagon back in the day. Courage knew every detail of the wagon since he often visited Shirley for help. That would give Scarecrow the layout idea of the entire vehicle structure. No stable home where they could live in peace, they had to make a mobile home. And Scarecrow was an excellent mechanic, given that he drove the combine harvester with razor-sharp blades he built and used to chase down Courage in the cornfield to protect Muriel. They put every resource they could find in huge bags to carry but it was very far away from the farm. As they were thinking how they could get there faster, they were ambushed by a different gang.

They weren't dogs. But they seem to purr a lot either from their four-wheeled scrap-welded car or their muzzles which stopped in front of them. Katz's gang of cats had to show up in a time like this, as they were armed ready with most horrific insects iconic to Katz, huge spiders and venomous scorpions were a bonus... leading Courage to scream with his generic fright mood. Unlike Mad Dog's faction of dog bikers, the cats preferred ordinary vehicles for extra armor than bikes for protection, and keeping the ammunition of insects stored in their trunk if needed.

Before they could even make a move upon Courage and Scarecrow they all immediately were been startled by a heavy and loud growl coming out of where the cats came from. The felines were obviously been chased by a huge monster leaving gigantic footprints they have often come across their land. Therefor the cats drove off knowing the creature would turn their vehicle upside down or crushing them like pancakes in no time, ignoring Courage and Scarecrow leaving them two awaiting their doom. They braced themselves until Courage noticed that the huge creature who stepped out of the darkness that was showing in the horizon, was actually Bigfoot! He scared off the cats and the chase stopped when the monster soon realized what he was seeing. Both Courage and Bigfoot began to hop in happiness and hugged each other to see themselves reunited again after a very long time, and he survived the apocalypse as well!

The Scarecrow remained confused as he took position of defending himself and Courage, ready to attack Bigfoot with a crowbar he had in hand, but very soon he dropped it. Courage convinced Bigfoot that it was okay to not hurt Scarecrow. Bigfoot was very loyal of his friend as much as Scarecrow was. While unable to speak he at least understood whatever Courage was speaking. Bigfoot often called out "Mommy!" looking for her adoptive owner apparently missing as well. Courage assumed the worst that he could be in the same situation as his own owners were, but he never told about his tragedy just yet.

Suddenly Courage's moment of happiness has been ended when he absolutely forgot that its night-time already and he remembered that the windmill was gone! His entire body was shaking and his head tingling as if something bad was happening. Hunchback and Shirley were in danger and they left them with the Vandals! Without further delay he requested Bigfoot's help of carrying the stuff he collected together with Scarecrow and hurry up back towards the farm. Knowing how Bigfoot was big and had enough big strength of carrying an entire bus (not as powerful to carry M.D.'s chariot but still), he gladly accepted rather than running around getting lost again. He would eventually return back in search of his Mommy later or sometime again, but now it begins the rushy hour. It was hard to convince him with Scarecrow around but time was ticking.

Back at the farm, Shirley and Hunchback watched, while hiding themselves inside Eustace's truck cabin as Mad Dog's gang of dogs were been decapitated one by one. They stood no chance against the vandals. The black energy formed from the vandals was easily sensed by Shirley as she was trying to make sense of all this madness. Something she never felt before. The Vandals were still running around in circles where the windmill used to be located. And then Hunchback noticed bits of the windmill blades buried within the sand. He came with a conclusion of repairing the windmill, believing that's what the vandals wanted, but Shirley knew that would be a death wish stepping out in the battle field with the vandals around. She relied perhaps on daylight waiting for them to disappear again, however horror just stricken upon the vehicle occupants, catching them by surprise. The Vandals sensed Shirley's ability to read their supernatural energy as they followed towards Eustace's cabin.

With a "Uh oh..." they gone out of the vehicle before many attacks from melee weapons cut through the truck, as they started to run from vandal's decapitating attempts. Running through pile of dead dogs, was exhausting. Hunchback being very old he had to stop to catch a breather, but Shirley wasn't going to let him die by those horse-riding bone ghosts. Normally she would take out her saxophone or anything she owned using spells but without them, she had to rely on whatever he could grab from the ground and luck. Tossing random objects over at vandals got their attention distracted from Hunchback. It was her chance to test out her defending and agility skills, instead of relying much on magic. Something that was quite unusual.

Now the vandals were onto Shirley, but just as the first swing of axe was about to slice her neck off, the vandal's arm was suddenly grabbed by Bigfoot's mouth unable to swing anymore. Courage was back just in time along with Scarecrow to see the death party going on. Bigfoot did his best to save Shirley in time, with full force he ripped off the vandal's bone arm holding the axe, leaving the vandal armless. Bigfoot now in full rage mode tried to take all 4 vandals by himself while he tossed the axe in the air only to be grabbed by Shirley to defend herself. Bigfoot was even strong enough to pull out a vandal's horse to a stop, jumping on top of one of the vandal's head and grabbed it with its teeth ripping off its skeleton shoulders. There was no way for this big guy to calm down once everything he saw was red while in rage mode.

Courage, Scarecrow and Hunchback taking advantage of the chaos, went up and fixed the windmill immediately before their friends were in further more danger. Knowing how everyone of them were in very weak state, it was a miracle that their actions haven't flawed in the slightest. What determined Bigfoot to jump onto a death trap to save his friends, was obvious that Courage told him a lot about them, while attempting to reach back at the farm. The vandals were vanished as the windmill started to turn again, but its power source plug was connected to nothing yet since the house was destroyed. At least the propeller kept running giving the entire team, time to breathe in relief of their victory. The medium thanked Bigfoot for saving her.

Without wasting much time, it begins the construction of the vehicle after placing all parts together by the brigade. Eustace's cabin was reworked a bit now with a spiky bumper in case they run into road killing enemies head-on, only one headlight was working but it was more than enough to light up the road ahead. The wagon itself was a bit smaller than how originally it was but it was fitting at the back of the truck's cabin forming up like a van than a pick-up truck. A little stove was built inside the van along with a telescope mounted so that anyone could see through it in the distance. They redesigned the entire vehicle a bit so that everyone could live in. It was no longer Shirley's only property now as they were free to do whatever they desired within the van during the journey. With the exception of samba dancing that left Bigfoot in disappointment. His huge feet could leave permanent footprint marks on the ground.

It was clear that he might damage the van floor with his walking or dancing. Therefor he had to get used with sneak in tip-toes. And his appetite for food grew stronger than ever, however during these times, he was struggling to not eat absolutely everything since it was critical and essential for his friends to live as well besides him. Hunchback was playing with his bell-cane in enjoyment of seeing the situation all settled down for now. Before everyone was set up to start their adventure of liberating Nowhere Ruins of Mad Dog's control, Courage remembered the computer processor chip he had it once within his computer in the attic. He asked Scarecrow if he could do something about it, but since Scarecrow was more of a mechanic and not an IT Technician, he couldn't let the poor dog's face all in sorrow. So he found out to introduced it within the truck's dashboard where Eustace's "stupid radio" was. Along with a phone screen found randomly and changed buttons hoping to somehow start it.

After hours of attempts to reawaken the computer, Courage had doubts that this will work out, but when he started the now functioning truck engine, the computer panel's screen also started up with the same green color the computer usualy had, leaving Courage stunned by this nearly-impossible event. Computer's voice started to talk with the same sarcastic voice wondering what happened after a long time of silence. Courage was more than happy he could jump through the cabin's roof if he liked, yet he sustained himself from doing so hearing his beloved computer alive again. The Computer felt really different as now a new source of energy was overflowing his circuits.

The truck battery all charged up from windmill's power and gas stolen from taken down dog camps done by Scarecrow and Hunchback in a stealth way, have gave it enough juice to react again in front of Courage now sitting at the driver's seat while Shirley next to him. "How pathetic..." was Computer's response. But one way or another, he had to get used to it from now on. The brigade washed themselves up from dust with water stolen as well, and taking care of their wounds with towels or bandages found from the farm and wagon before entering the vehicle.

Since there was no internet anymore, while very low frequency signals started to rework again after years of no signal at all around the world triggered by Mad Dog's camps, computer's processor unleashed its little wires to control over the truck by accessing better its functionalities. Therefor he became the "K.I.T.T." of Nowhere. However he would have to limit himself for now from excessive use of energy, since they were in the middle of wasteland. And finding better energy sources left was going to be a challenge for the brigade. All computer could ever provide was the situation awareness around the location they were currently been located. Luckily he would track down the roads the truck has ever been, preventing the brigade from getting lost. Providing up a history map after discovering new locations built up after the apocalypse, as they drove now out of the farm's range.

Still his grumpy personality remains intact. They didn't even cared anymore if the windmill will ever stop again, since they won't be going back anytime sooner or later for it was too dangerous, at least for now. It was extremely hard for Courage to leave the home he grown up so many years, but instead of wasting time to repair everything back up only to be ambushed again by Mad Dog patrols or Katz's felines, they had to make sure nothing will be left for them to steal. It was a battle between dogs and cats over the wasteland. One can assume if the brigade will ever bump into a different territory ruled by an ally or a different villain as they move on. However Courage still had in mind to repair the farm once everything is absolutely settled up over the wasteland with the occasion of revisiting his owners's graves.

And thus, Courage was no longer alone. Despite his weak state but slowly recovering, even when everything seemed to be dead as hostiles were all over parts of the world fighting for survival, and poor survivors wandering around were fighting their own fear of not being attacked or killed by hostiles, it was up for the brigade to put an end to this atrocity. There can be arguments between Courage's allies or bounding telling each others about their past life, to somehow get along even more for it was wise to not let the depression get the best of them.

What were they going to do once everything is settled up, it was up to Courage and his friends to decide their own endeavors. This could've mean the whole new meaning of having 'courage'. Not cowardly stupid, but cowardly brave. Even when horror strikes upon them again, the apocalypse may bring up new supernatural forces or enemies leading Courage to scream in his generic voice like always. They were going to be prepared to fight and protect each other. No matter even if their inner past moments or present events could affected them somehow.

But for now, Mad Dog was on their list. The courageous brigade would not rest in peace ever, until they see Mad Dog's demise permanently as a priority. They would however clear out Nowhere Ruins of remaining hostiles so they have picked up every weapon they could find on the road or taken down camps, from melee types (especially Eustace's mallet) to broken down rusty rifles. Not intentionally directed to enemies but to scare them off at least. If anything was about to go very extreme for the brigade, they would have no choice but to use their equipment wisely. Considering how some military bases were wrecked also, M.D.s dogs obviously had to pick them up, when their jaws weren't enough to chew on whoever they jumped on.

Whatever happened to Bunny and Kitty had to be also Courage's concern. Wherever Mad Dog thinks he would find Bunny, that's where the brigade would have to follow as well, to reassure Bunny and Kitty's trust on dogs back. And not the ones of the Mad Dog liking. As for Katz's gang, they would most likely attack by surprise when you're least expected as they prefer stealth than rampaging like berserk wardogs. Wherever Katz lived after the disaster remains a mystery since his motel and kandy store were gone too, as the only option would be underground tunnels... like buzzards.

* * *

**THE END.. of plot summary.**

* * *

**_Author's Note:_** As much as i suck at writing stories sometimes, as i'm not a writer myself most of the time, i hope this doesn't seem very off by details and you could at least get the point of idea. Sorry ^^; Because i am occupied in real life I don't think i'll ever expand this fanfiction in chapters to write down, as this was a one-shot idea i had time to write down after i drawn my artwork, but i do encourage the best writers out there who are also deep Courage fans to expand my idea with my permission of course, if what i had in mind here seems appealing.

I'll leave it in progress, in case if people decides me to continue it instead when nobody feels like doing it for me, but it'll take me a very loooong time to organize every dialogue between characters and events step by step, unlike this summary i did.

I would consider this a wild story ride i have written in a very long time, ever since i got hooked up with Courage the Cowardly Dog community fanbase recently. I hope this wasn't a waste of time writing as it took me few weeks to form up the plot behind the deviation. The whole story was more inspired off of Mad-Max, particularly Fury Road movie and the game from 2015. You guys should definitely try them! Because the setup in a wasteland of nothingness was fitting with the events of Nowhere.

_Thanks for reading and any feedback are welcomed!_


	2. Two Teams Are Better Than One

_**Author's Note:**_ I HIGHLY Recommend you should read the plot summary in the first chapter before start reading this second one.

To make things more interesting about this fanfiction with The Courageous Brigade, i introduced a control point system over the wasteland territories that will show up besides the main title of the chapter to give you an idea if the brigade has to face any danger or not.

These points means the maximum control over the occupied land, city, or region. Each point resembles an enemy high importance target building, camp, or any location controlled by different factions. If the control is reduced to zero by the brigade, that specific area is no longer hostile, and the remaining survivors can occupy it providing resources for the brigade and themselves.

Ally factions that MAY appear in later chapters, can be also included within the title system.

* * *

**TCB: Chapter 2: Two Teams Are Better Than One**

* * *

**_[Nowhere Ruins]_**

_(Mad Dog's Control = 5 Points) - (Katz's Control = 2 Points)_

* * *

The brigade van was driving fairly much far away from Bagge Farm, with Courage on the wheel. Shirley sitting on the passenger seat next to Courage looking at her right side through the window the nightmare of the badlands view that was formed within the range of Nowhere Ruins after the apocalypse. The sky above them was pretty dark in black and orange clouds even though it was daylight already but unknown if it looked like its going to start another sandstorm, or it was just smoke formed up still emanating from all over the world.

Courage turned his eyes from the road, looking at Shirley worried, then on the dashboard Computer screen showing the map history updating in progress as they drove. His eyes went back on the road. Computer suddenly spoke:

"I really would have preferred to be back in a computer whole again, rather than being your stupid GPS. This driving sensation is certainly not my thing." he said in his not-amused tone.

"What makes you think that i would not agree with you?" asked Courage. "Besides i told you that your real body is now a pile of scrap. I couldn't recover it regrettably in my condition."

"I understand that this is the end of the world, but you didn't tell me what happened to you while i was being shut down for approximately 2 years and a half without being switched on. Judging by your condition i'd say that sums up."

With that thought of timeout, Courage gulped with his eyes widen. Shirley remained silent. The pink hound passed out that longer since the meteor strike!? Unbelievable, but Computer made his math work while offscreen. Courage sighed and told:

"Well... i'm surprised you haven't lost your ability of doing math work, like it would even matter now." his eyes were darken on the road. "Last thing i remember... was a very big bright light.. it was hot as the Sun. The farm... was lifted up in the air as well as myself... Muriel... " the dog's memories before the apocalypse were enough to form up tears on his eyes, even though his left eye remained scarred from one of the wardog's claws.

"Very tragic indeed.. I shouldn't brought this subject up. But i am more than just a calculator, you know. Given that i have full control over this vehicle, i can stop right away or drive on my own wherever i- "

"Don't. Even. Think about it!" said Shirley with a slight growl on her face.

Courage felt a shiver hearing the medium talking in a horrific tone and attitude after hours of silence, therefor he tried to calm down the spirits.

"Please Computer, I'm so sorry i haven't rescued your body! But this isn't the time to play around. You should save your energy! When this is all over, then you can do what you want! Ermm.. With the exception of crashing our van of course.. but you're the only member of the family left for me, and i don't want to lose you too just like Muriel... and the farmer!" said Courage as his tears began to fell all over his muzzle.

"Twit, you absolutely really don't get the joke, do you? I must be really stupid to do such a thing when i have a very limited source of energy to keep going. Unless you have more fuel for me before it runs out, i'll be able to stay idle more as long as the engine won't die. The battery won't be a problem from now on as i have connected my own circuits to it from preventing to discharge. Now wipe out your eyes cause that's the last thing i would want to see. I could only hope this rust bucket won't fall apart until we reach our next destination discovered." Computer said so as he returned to idle mode, leaving the map progress opened up on the dashboard phone screen again.

Courage sighed again, sniffing and rubbed his eyes off from tears focusing on the road again. He turned his head to Shirley to excuse Computer's behavior.

"I'm sorry you had to hear him talking like that. That's just the way how he is."

"Don't worry about it. If he is truly your only family member left, i will consider your machine as the next "stupid one" if he dares to do something stupid." said Shirley while still looking at her right side of the window.

Inside the rear van that resembled Shirley's wagon, Hunchback was looking through the telescope mounted on the front window on the same side where Courage and Shirley are currently facing, as he sat on a tall chair due to his small size. He was amazed to see things at a long distance, while Scarecrow and Bigfoot tried to have a conversation together. But Bigfoot barely even spoke a word since he couldn't talk, he would most likely roar, nodding or waving with its small arms while talking gibberish language. Scarecrow on the other hand, was beginning to like their company despite their differences. And he began to spoke:

"Do you see anything unusual other than wardogs, Hunchback?"

"Uhmm... it's only nothing... i sure hope we get to... someplace with food and water... but it's... never easy." The Hunchback's accent sounded more like a very old man unlike Eustace. He had difficulties while speaking as he aged since last time he met Courage. But his agility remained unchanged thankfully. What Hunchback was trying to say was true that it's never easy to scavenge for resources from Mad Dog's wardog camps.

"Wait!... i see something! ... Something big and lots of smoke.. up ahead.. with wardogs approaching us!" Hunchback shivered in fear as he knocked a few times with his knuckles on the front van wall to warn Courage and Shirley.

They got the message as soon as Hunchback finished ringing his bell cane as a panic alarm as well for the entire brigade. Everyone all took positions of defending the van. Courage and Shirley looked up ahead that they were approaching towards an oil refinery guarded by wardogs. The enemies were about to do the "welcoming committee". Computer warned them returning from idle mode.

"I suggest you buckle up fellas. We've got some guests." as the van was now suddenly turned into auto-pilot mode by Computer. Courage wasn't able to control it for all he ever did was doing his own thing...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Screaming at the incoming wardogs riding their bikes. They were 3 of them. The wardogs jumped off their bikes and landed on top of the van before they were hit head on. One growling wardog gripped the cabin with its claws while the other two on the wagon for stability. The brigade van ran faster than ever, with wobbly turns to left and right hoping it will shake off the enemies, but with no prevail since their claws got attached to the roof.

"You two, stay inside!" Scarecrow ordered.

Scarecrow jumped out of the van's window still in his Commando suit and reached for the roof maintaining his stability while the van rolled in high speed. The wardogs growled and barked in fury and they jumped on Scarecrow's face only to be punched away off the van one after another. Bigfoot remained inside with Hunchback. One remaining wardog was still on top of the cabin.

"This one is mine." said Shirley as she pulled out Eustace's big mallet.

"No, Shirley please!" Courage begged while clenching his teeth and his paws were tight gripped to the steering wheel. He didn't want her to get hurt.

"Shut it, dog! Just drive!" the medium clearly had business to attend to, given her determination of sending the dirty wardog a piece of her mind for what they did to her.

Shirley crawled on top of the van cabin keeping her paws gripped as well for stability. Computer was most likely wasting huge amount of gas while running in high speed, turns out that his joke was quite necessarily doing so otherwise the wardogs would have damaged more the van in normal speed. The wardog released its grip and aimed his claws towards Shirley...

_**WHAM!**_

The medium took a one heavy mallet swing, knocking out the wardog's head, which eventually it fell on the windshield.

"...Stupid dog!" Shirley smiled while imitating Eustace.

Courage seeing the unconscious wardog laying on the windshield, screamed once again and shivered in fear. He turned on the wipers to move the wardog out of the way. Scarecrow and Shirley were now both on top of the van holding each other for stability and wondering why the van isn't slowing down since the wardogs they faced off were gone.

"COMPUTER! SLOW DOWN IT'S OVER!" Courage yelled as her fur was risen up.

"I don't think so. Look behind you, twit." Computer replied.

"HUH?..." Courage confused and scared, he looked on the rear-view mirror and it revealed another two wardog bikers chasing them from behind as well approaching slowly. The brigade was more likely ambushed, and very soon they will reach the nearby enemy refinery.

"Oh no! What do i do?! WHAT DO I DO?!" Courage grabbed his ears in despair.

"Get up there and help your friends! I'll handle the road. Make it quick before i run out of juice, or i'll be the one who gets shut down, ramming the refinery too!" Computer demanded.

Courage howled and immediately crawled out of the driver's seat, reaching the top of the van he called out the other two allies to get back inside the van. But just as Courage was about to reach for them on all fours, he was unaware of being already locked on by the wardog sniper in the distance.

Computer redirected the van by making a quick sharp turn to the left, avoiding the sniper bullets and saving Courage from getting shot at. The sniper wardog on top of the refinery growled as he reloads his rifle. But that costed the trio's balance on its roof. Shirley almost fell off the van, but she was quickly grabbed hold by Courage and Scarecrow still gripped with one of each hand on the top roof.

"HANG ON! WE GOT YOU!" Scarecrow yelled as he and Courage were pulling the medium back up and they certainly did.

The two wardog bikers reached the rear-end of the van, only to be welcomed by Bigfoot's wide open mouth with sharp teeth growling at them. Horrified by that scene, the wardogs let it go until dirt was dragged along with them into their muzzles left behind on the road injured. Hunchback and Bigfoot laughed afterwards. The trio on the roof has seen the wrecked bikes along with knocked out wardogs left behind too.

Finally the van started to slow down to normal speed. The trio that was on top of the van were able to return back to their usual seats, as Scarecrow and Courage managed to prevent Shirley from accidentally getting ran over by the huge rear wagon wheel. Computer redirected the van driving off-road to a nearby rock bigger than the van itself for cover, away from the sniper's point of view.

It was the perfect place to lay low from more incoming "guests".

The refinery itself was still working producing oil and gas located at The Wrong Side of The Tracks in Nowhere Ruins. Next to the refinery it used to be located Mad Dog's little building with apartments where he brought Bunny years ago. Three smokestacks were on top of the refinery, one wardog sniper was on the roof. It was considered one of the most valuable places that Mad Dog controls it. Many of his faction tags were sprayed all over the walls resembling a red dog paw with two bones crossed.

But the building structure was most likely rebuilt by wardogs since it was heavily affected by the apocalypse. Too bad the brigade has to bring it down to lower Mad Dog's control over the land.

However Courage didn't seem to like Computer's strategy as the pink hound began to scold the machine. Not realizing his attitude starting to flame, he growls and asks:

"Are you... out of your mind!?" Courage yelled once more while his eyes were starting to fade into red a little bit. "YOU COULD HAVE RAN OVER SHIRLEY!"

"Relax, we just have arrived. Besides, it's not my fault she went out to remove that wardog." as the van was slowing even more to a complete stop and parked. "And i had to make a sharp turn to avoid sniper bullets coming out of the refinery to save you."

"Uhh.. Courage?" Shirley seen the pink dog was about to snap in rage.

"Do... You... Have any idea... how much gas... YOU WASTED!?" seeing the dashboard fuel meter was almost empty, Courage was now seeing all red while panting in hot steamy breathing.

"Enough gas to get us all safe at our location, i suppose? Oh dear..." Computer was now shut down with its phone screen turned black, as the van ran out of fuel completely. Courage screeched his teeth tight with his eyes closed as his head was boiling in an unimaginable rage. His paws with claws unleashed were on top of his head.

"COURAGE!" Shirley screamed with her eyes widen, she jumps in front of him to shake Courage by his shoulders harder to snap out of it, since the pink hound was tripping. Hunchback, Scarecrow and Bigfoot got out of the van, as soon as they heard the medium's scream to see what happened.

"Is everthing alright?" Hunchback responded worried as they all looked at the two dogs.

Eventually Courage finally was starting to breathe regularly to calm down and he shook his head a few times, his eyes were about to open slowly, his blood rage looking was fading away returning to normal looking vision. Courage's vision was blurry after that until it returned back to more clear looking. Shirley still had her paws gripped to Courage's shoulders looking worried and relieved at the same time.

The pink hound was starting to speak again with a slight headache.

"Oooooooh... what... " he didn't realize what his team was doing while being blinded in rage. "What... happened?" panted like crazy as if he ran a whole marathon.

"You lost it.." Shirley told. "It happened again." she noticed that was Courage's second time of letting insanity gaining control over the dog. First time being around was when he forced himself to help his friends repairing the windmill in his weak condition. However he managed to control it quickly unlike the second time.

"He what?" The trio asked simultaneously and shocked.

"I'm afraid the fact that his beloved owners Muriel and the stupid one being gone, it broke the dog's void in his heart that could trigger anytime a fury rage whenever he gets upset too much. And only the dog must control it from his inner pure soul. If not... " Shirley explained it to them, and turned her face back to Courage with serious looking eyes to complete her phrase. "... you will become a blood thirsty hound. There's no guarantee how to fix this otherwise. You must not get mad. At all!"

"Did i just.." panting a little bit "...lost my mind?" Courage asked with concern.

"The look on your face earlier that i have seen was similar to a creature ready to kill everyone on sight. No need to panic now, and i recommend you should stay here and rest. Think of good things." Shirley suggested.

Courage feeling a little bit better but whimpered in sadness for what he had become earlier, he apologized to his team as Shirley got out of the vehicle as well.

"I'm so sorry guys, i didn't mean to do that honestly... It was always gets me but i can't control it..." Courage was still sitting on the driver's seat looking at his team with tears on his eyes.

"It's not your fault, Courage. We do understand your pain very well." Scarecrow told. Bigfoot nods in agreement.

"We'll see what.. we can find in this... place and come back for you. Go sleep boy." Hunchback assured him.

Shirley stopped in her tracks and turns her head around looking at the dog "And besides, you already proved far too much your heroic deed. A courageous dog like you needs moments of recreation. You fight today for tomorrow." Her motivational speech didn't seem to cheer up Courage's sad mood, until she completed with:

"Don't think i do not remember almost everything i seen about you, courageous one." Shirley giggled, lighting up the mood at least.

Courage's ears perked up awkwardly, hearing that last sentence.

"Wait! You spied of me before?" Courage turned his expression from sadness to sheer confusion starting to form up a blush. The other trio were holding up their giggles as Bigfoot put a huge smile at his face.

That was enough to light up the mood from sadness, pain and hopelessness.

"Oh... Never mind. He will be fine." Shirley blushed a little bit turning her head away with a slight embarrassing smirk on her face and shook her head. "Let's go, guys." The medium turned around and left a few steps away from the van. She poked her head out at the side of the rock to get a better view at the refinery.

Hunchback and Bigfoot followed afterwards. Before Scarecrow was leaving as well to start their mission, he assured Courage that he will protect them and they'll come back as fast as they can, hopefully with more resources to bring back along the way.

"Courage, rest now i'll keep an eye on them." Scarecrow told and was about to leave with the trio until Courage stopped him to give him something.

"Oh wait! Here! Take this!" Courage turned himself around and pulled out surprisingly Eustace's big green mask he used to be scared of, rebuilt by Courage since it was heavily damaged. The pink hound acquired it during the Bagge's funeral hoping it'll be useful for scaredy wardogs.

"What's this?" Scarecrow asked.

"It's a mask. Give it to Hunchback. He doesn't have anything to defend with. I don't think his cane would be useful against wardogs. But i sure remember that he scared the farmer with his own white mask with the farmer's face. This one however... it scared me. I hope it works as a weapon, or as a shield at least... he'll know what to do." Courage explained.

Scarecrow smiled and took Courage's mask and words with ease. He returns to others and waves an arm back at Courage.

"P-please.. be careful!" Courage was desperately trying to help them in his mind as well, but due to his condition he had no choice but to listen to his friends. While still feeling awkward of Shirley's words, and unable to turn on the Computer now just so he can apologize for yelling at him, he leaned down on the driver's seat curling himself and trying to get some sleep until his team gets back.

A few steps away from the van, the brigade was analyzing the refinery before their plan of attack. However Hunchback felt sorry for leaving Courage behind and asked the team:

"Was it... really wise to leave... that poor dog alone?" he asked while pointing his bell-cane towards the van.

"I trust him completely." Shirley replied while watching the refinery. "Somebody has to guard the vehicle while we are off, yes? If anything happens, the courageous one will alert us with his scream from many miles away." she made a point though given how Courage has very strong lungs to rip apart the whole ground is more than enough to give the brigade time to react.

"Here." Scarecrow handles the mask to Hunchback.

"What? Ooh..! I remember this." Hunchback immediately recognized it and took it with him. "This sure.. comes in handy! Hehehehe.."

"Okay. What do you see?" Scarecrow asked the medium while turning around his head.

"I see... I see... " Shirley barely noticed from the distance the perimeter defenses around the refinery. " Two dogs at the front door. One sniper on the roof looking the other way around. And a bunch of bikes parked inside 3 small camps around the building." That was a relief having a very low security since they wasted their welcoming committee on the road, giving them space to storm the place.

"Let's get on then!" Scarecrow demanded. And Bigfoot nodded in excitement.

"Wait! There is more than it meets the eye." Shirley added.

"Like, there can be... more wardogs inside too?" Hunchback remained stunned as well as Bigfoot shivering in fear.

"We need to split up. This way we will cover more ground. If something goes wrong, you are on your own." the medium suggested.

Bigfoot started his gibberish talking pointing at Shirley and the refinery with his arms waving in air.

"I think Bigfoot... means that he wants to go... with you." Hunchback trying to describe his mimicking. The Bigfoot nodded that was exactly what he wanted.

"Fair enough. But don't expect me to understand you better, big guy." Shirley agreed, while Bigfoot gulped and nodded.

"Then it's 2 by 2. I'll take Hunchback with me then. Good luck, Miss Medium!" Scarecrow smiled as he picked up Hunchback on his back and ran towards the refinery already with extra care.

"Wait, i didn't-!" she sighed. "...-said charge." Shirley facepalmed. "Come on, big guy." mild annoyed the medium ran as well together with Bigfoot stomping huge footprints behind trying to keep up with them. But Bigfoot picked her up since she was too small and running slow than him. Luckily the sniper wardog on the roof wasn't paying attention to his new incoming "guests" as the brigade were extremely cautious about sneak in with ease.

Meanwhile, Courage felt asleep. His closed eyes and ears were twitching in an unsettled way as if he was about to have nightmares.

* * *

_FLASHBACK DREAM SEQUENCE ON - WITH BLACK AND WHITE SCENARIO:_

Bagge Farmhouse...

Courage was seen in front of the house porch with Muriel eating pie and drinking lemonade after a day's work in the garden from collecting vegetables. They spotted a meteor that was merely the size of a plane far away in the sky heading straight across Nowhere, not directly at the farm. Courage was confused at first wondering how did that end up in the sky. After he finished eating, he along Muriel went back inside believing that was nothing to worry about.

Eustace was changing TV channels in the living room, until he stopped and listened to the newsman reporting breaking news about an incoming meteor. Newsman giving all the details that the military is struggling to destroy the incoming space rock with all the missiles they had given by the General to prevent a possible impact. That left Courage in shock and trembling, but Eustace changed the channel again, not buying the newsman's attention. Muriel looked with concern on her beloved dog.

Not a moment too soon, the meteor covered the entire sky eventually blocking the sunlight, followed by an earthquake meaning the meteor was coming close. The military failed to rescue the human mankind and that left Courage screaming in horror as he immediately picked up Muriel and Eustace out of their chairs and heading towards the basement but... it was too late. Before he could open the basement door, the entire farmhouse was lifted up in the air by the shock wave blast with them inside. Seeing all white breeze, The Bagge couple and Courage's horrific screams faded away.

COURAGE! Muriel screamed.

_FLASHBACK DREAM SEQUENCE OFF_

* * *

Courage suddenly snapped his eyes open back to reality unleashing his generic scream again, but this time it wasn't loud enough to alert his allies thankfully. After doing so he looked away on both directions to make sure nothing bad happened in his sleep, besides the sound of passing by vehicle with cats wandering around thankfully not noticing the van. The dog still hasn't got through this. His past moments were beginning to haunt him.

"Muriel..." Courage mourned her owner's name as he was desperately trying to sleep. He misses her so much. Even Eustace was in his mind. He hated to admit it but Courage wished at least to be scared by Eustace's OogaBooga mask once again by his grumpy old man voice. Despite the farmer hated the dog so much, Courage still cared about him.

Courage's mind went idly back to Shirley. She owes now an explanation for making the dog feeling awkward in front of his other friends. But Courage thought she may lie, knowing her attitude of not showing any sign of emotions towards the dog before, would have confirmed that. Although she is a fortune-teller, it could've been possible she may took interest in Courage eventually without the dog's knowledge since Courage often visited her for help.

Leaving Shirley wondering what's the big deal about this dog being so scared and at the same time, so "special", every time he requested help for? However Courage returned to the fact that he shouldn't underestimate Shirley. She helped the brigade recovering the Bagges bodies, even in the end, and therefor Courage considered her a valuable friend next to Computer of course. Without that sarcastic machine of his, used to be back in the attic, not even Courage or the Bagge couple would have survived through many catastrophes.

As for Hunchback, Scarecrow and Bigfoot, the pink hound met them only once despite their differences and one-time encounter. Courage would more likely wish to know more about them one day since they are all reunited for now. However since Bigfoot cannot talk properly at all besides gibberish language, he'd have to get used to read his mimicking. Or better yet, not forcing his luck too much which Courage assumed that some things may better be left forgotten.

Without too much complicated thoughts, Courage shook his head from all this, and finally fell asleep again with full confidence now.

Meanwhile, both teams were separated on different directions of the refinery undetected. Hunchback & Scarecrow to the right side, while Bigfoot & Shirley to the left side. Each team reached at their spots and positions against refinery exterior walls. Scarecrow seen an opened window at the top above him and Hunchback. He lifted up the old man climbing up to the window until Hunchback finally reached it. He looked out inside the refinery through the window and seen a bunch of worn out poor survivors pushing the levers of a machinery extracting oil, while the wardogs were guarding them.

The refinery's interior was more looking like a construction site as the ground was deeply dug in forming up a huge crushing pit with survivors working hard. They were afraid of wardogs obviously. Nobody dared to raise an arm to protest otherwise they'll be turned into dog food.

On top of the crushing pit, there was a bigger and more frightening grey bulldog monster with a chainsaw for right arm... a freakin' chainsaw! Most likely commanding his enslaved workers, and he was one of Mad Dog's loyal sidekicks. Shirley was right that not everything may seem to look simple.

Hunchback gulped and decided to sneak in after assuring that nobody sees him, he helps Scarecrow to get up as well with him, and they both entered the building. Bigfoot and Shirley, on the other hand they were focusing on the front door 2 guards. No open windows for them to sneak in this time. Bigfoot was ready to attack while clenching his big sharp teeth, but Shirley stopped him since she had an idea, even though she wasn't going to like it.

"Tell no one of this. Got it?" the medium asked with sheer determination and annoyance.

Bigfoot nods with confusion. Shirley remembered he cannot talk properly and she was preparing to make her move.

"Get ready, you will have your lunch in no time." Shirley taking a deep breath, stepped out right around the corner, and whistled.

Catching the guards attention, both wardogs witnessed the medium Chihuahua flirting with them as she raised up her green dress showing up her left leg. With fake, yet passionate looking eyes, she blinked giving them a sign to come over. Both wardogs howled at the same time in pleasure and whistled seeing the beautiful figure and rushed towards Shirley. As soon as she made quick turn around, the wardogs followed her quickly on all 4 limbs. Then a loud roar with chomp and thump was heard around the corner, revealed to be Bigfoot chewing the wardogs in his huge mouth. Their fluffy tails were stuck in between Bigfoot's teeth. Shirley smiled at that sight. The entryway was now clear. The medium went ahead, but Bigfoot spat out the injured and unconscious wardogs cause they tasted like wet socks. That left the big monster in disgust as he was rubbing his tongue off of dog fur, following Shirley.

Hunchback and Scarecrow were sneaking in tip toes as they were located at the second floor of the refinery looking for possible resources or any ways of helping the survivors escape, while the other team breaks through the entryway still unnoticed. A random survivor caught the attention of Scarecrow and asked very silently without catching the wardog's attention who was looking away from their sight:

"Wh- wh- who, are.. you?" the survivor asked nervously.

"Shhh! We're here to help you. But do you happen to know how to bring that machinery thing down?" Scarecrow asked the survivor while pointing at the oil well in the middle of the crushing pit.

"B-B-B-Big Grivus..." the survivor mentioned the chainsaw armed bulldog's name. Both Scarecrow and Hunchback looked at him.

"T-t-take him out... and we can be... freeee!" the poor survivor was giving it out its tears seeing a possible salvation after a long time in this unforgiving Hell but the courageous brigade had to do it somehow without risking of injuring any survivor when the whole place will be locked down.

**_WHAM!_**

Another wardog was knocked out by Shirley's mallet while Bigfoot just finished rubbing his tongue. They were heading towards the basement. The medium turns around and apologizes to the monster.

"I am so sorry you did not like that, but i am sure there has to be decent food around here. Even these wardogs cannot live without eating something at least." as she points out the knocked out wardog next to her.

Bigfoot accepts her knowledge and nods in agreement, until he points out something he had gazed over something he never thought he'd see. Bigfoot talks in gibberish again while pointing with his tiny arms, Shirley tries to understand him:

"Now what is it, big guy?" she asked.

Bigfoot ran over quickly to a slight opened ajar door. Next to the door was an opened can of dog food laying on the ground but it was merely empty. The big monster picked it up sniffing and licking the can, but when he opened the door wide, he and Shirley just located the wardogs's bunkers. Without wardogs even guarding them! Surprisingly the lockers were filled with a couple of unopened cans of dog food still fresh and dead lizards. There were more than enough for the whole brigade on their next journey and for survivors. The bunkers were still looking damaged with a crack hole on the ceiling in the main hallway.

But right below the crack there was some sort of water collector, with bottles strapped to it. Of course! The apocalypse causing sandstorms with thunders and lightnings could have at least made the land more wet right after, not technically raining. But due to huge humidity and cold air left by those storms, it could have moistened the ground and it eventually left droplets of water sliding down right into the collector. So that the collector would store water inside the bottles.

Both Shirley and Bigfoot were delightful of their discovery. The medium patted Bigfoot's back.

"Splendid job." she proudly looked at him, while the big guy looked back down at her with the same glare of happiness. However Shirley's glare of happiness turned back to frown.

"Don't eat them all... Wait until we get back to our van." she knew the Bigfoot's reaction therefor the big monster huffed but eager at the same time to eat once their job was done here. It was the medium's choice of how much food and water they should get for themselves but leaving some for poor survivors too and started to scavenge the bunkers.

They weren't exactly going to "demolish" the whole building cause the survivors have nowhere place to live. So the courageous brigade was going to liberate the refinery for them to occupy, and defend it. Making themselves feeling like home again and not in a concentration camp.

The wardogs being dumb as ever didn't even bother to use their rifles since the brigade took them out by surprise. And luckily the survivors were still doing their own thing without blowing the brigade's cover.

Scarecrow was prepared to climb up the machinery to face Big Grivus on the platform he was standing above the crushing pit and commanding. Due to his buffed up looking in Commando jacket, it gave him enough strength and will match Big Grivus's size. But he has to avoid the chainsaw. He turned around and asked Hunchback:

"Hunchback... can you to take out that sniper on the roof? I'll take care of this troublesome dog." Scarecrow talked in a determined and silenced tone.

"I'll try..." Hunchback replied.

"Take those stairs up to the roof, when you're done, go back to Courage without me."

"But... aren't you gonna.. get hur-" he got interrupted.

"Go now." Scarecrow started to climb up ignoring Hunchback's concern.

Hunchback didn't argue anymore with that and listened to his friend. He went up alone to the roof. Scarecrow obviously wanted somebody to check on Courage at least since they have been long gone. The old man peeked out through the roof's trapdoor opened ajar to look out for the sniper very carefully.

The wardog sniper was looking at the opposite direction. Hunchback seeing this, he took his heart out and walked slowly on the roof approaching the sniper with caution. The wardog was too concentrated on his reticle aim through his sniper scope to hear any footsteps behind him and then...

"Uhmm.. excuse me, sir?" Hunchback caught the attention of the sniper.

The wardog turns around quickly with his rifle about to aim for the old man, but at the same time when he caught the gaze of his sneaky intruder, the Hunchback had Eustace's mask up ready to scare him off.

"OOOGA-BOOGA-BOOGA!"

The sniper wardog fired a shot towards the mask while being startled and fell off the roof, landing on the pair of chewed dogs by Bigfoot. Hunchback looked down and laughed with joy. Eustace's mask did worked after all as Courage would have hoped! Thankfully the pink dog reinforced it with scrap plates forming as a bullet proof mask, otherwise the sniper bullet could have pierced through it, injuring Hunchback.

Bigfoot and Shirley went out of the bunkers with bags of food and bottles with water, but they stopped right away to see the ingoing fight that was coming from the top of the oil extracting machinery. The enslaved survivors were now revolting with the remaining wardogs. Scarecrow has engaged already a fight with Big Grivus on the top platform. The bulldog told in his vicious loud tone:

"HOW I DREAMED OF HAVING MY VERY FIRST CHEWING TOY!" Big Grivus was a big baby monster of a brainless bulldog as he was about to swing his chainsaw arm. How did Mad Dog end up with a weirdo like him, was unimaginable.

Scarecrow didn't said nothing and dodges his several melee chainsaw attacks. Big Grivus tries to catch him with his other normal paw with claws too, but fails. Scarecrow seeing the big bulldog was beginning to feel exhausted by plenty of failed attempts to cut him into pieces, he starts to make his move and punches him on the back a couple of times. But Grivus wasn't taking any of it, as he turned out and suddenly grabs hold of Scarecrow's neck, lifting him up slightly. He tosses Scarecrow in the air where the ongoing gears from the oil extracting machinery still works. Luckily he landed right next to it. If Scarecrow gets sucked into that, he'll be turned into oil covered haystack. Bigfoot and Shirley were terrified by the scene, suddenly Bigfoot jumps into action to help his friend. He drops the bags with food leaving Shirley with them, and climbs up on the machine until he reaches the top catwalk platform, and he did.

Big Grivus was about to use his chainsaw again on the laid down Scarecrow next to the machine without noticing Bigfoot behind him. The bulldog quote before sawing Scarecrow to pieces:

"NOW BE A GOOD DOGGY TOY AND LET BIG GRIVUS CHEW ON YOU!"

"Chew on this!" Scarecrow grabbed Big Grivus's chainsaw with both of his arms and put it above Scarecrow's head where the spinning gears of the machine was, the razor sharp spinning blades of his chainsaw were now conflicting with the machine's gears causing malfunctioning and smoke out with flaming sparks. The machine was now jammed and the survivors didn't had to push the levers anymore to keep the extractor going.

Grivus screamed in agony trying to release his chainsaw arm as it was now sucked into the machine. Scarecrow immediately evaded out of his way, and now it was Bigfoot's chance to act.

Grivus's chainsaw was destroyed, and now he was left with one arm. Bigfoot grabbed his shoulder, turns him around and kicks Grivus with his huge mighty foot off the catwalk platform.

The big bulldog falls off into the abyss of the oil pit where there was nothing but darkness below. His screaming faded away as the oil extracting machinery ceased to work after that conflict.

Shirley looked down into the pit and quote:

"How you couldn't dream of drowning yourself in oil..." she shook her head.

The survivors all cheered up seeing Big Grivus's demise along with Mad Dog's wardogs defeated. Scarecrow and Bigfoot were lifted up by the crowd of enslaved survivors, but it was suddenly interrupted when a huge explosion was emanated from within the pit. The little sparks from the machine combined with inflammable oil caused that, but everyone stood out of the way from the explosion destroying the oil extractor as well. Luckily it didn't collapsed the entire refinery, but all of the windows from every part of the building were shattered. That would most likely have caught Courage's attention. The broken down extractor fell as well into the pit, but not all the way down. The scrap plates formed from the explosion fell and covered up the giant hole.

Scarecrow quote afterwards:

"I don't think he'll be coming back after that..." he smiled while meeting up with Bigfoot and Shirley, however the medium noticed that Hunchback was missing and she asked him:

"Uhh... where's Hunchback?"

"I sent him back to Courage, i was worried about the dog for we have left him for too long." Scarecrow replied.

"Okay. Good." The medium nods in approval. "Oh, before we go..." Shirley stops her sentence, she turns around herself and pulls out 3 packs of dynamites, leaving Scarecrow and Bigfoot shocked.

"...let's blow up those bike camps." Shirley smiled with vengeance on her face, but her teammates agreed to go along. Not only they found food and water in the bunkers, but explosives were very welcomed, in case if any remaining wardog was about to use their bikes parked in front of the refinery.

The survivors waved their hands of goodbye after they thanked the brigade for saving them, however one of the survivors called out to stop as he wanted to give something for the team. The survivor quote:

"Wait! Wait! Here! Take these! As appreciation for saving our souls! You are truly the chosen saints!" the survivor gave to Shirley, Scarecrow and Bigfoot, a few cans of gas. The team absolutely forgot they ran out of gas when they have stopped here. They all smiled with Scarecrow thanking them:

"Thank you... but we are not saints. We are just like you."

"Never let wardogs enslave you, consider this place now your home and defend it, you'll see for yourselves the true meaning of a saint down in your broken hearts." Shirley concluded.

"Bye-Bye!" Finally Bigfoot said something besides gibberish language while waving that left Shirley and Scarecrow stunned.

Meanwhile...

Back in the van behind the huge boulder, Courage was long awake attempting to contact Computer on the truck's dashboard thinking it would have at least battery juice if not gas, but no success. Until Hunchback came, startling the dog.

"Hey!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Courage screamed until he put his paws to his muzzle recognizing who startled him.

"Oh sorry!" Hunchback apologized.

"What.. what are you doing here? I heard the explosion! I can't get out of here! Where are the others?" the dog asked with concern looking at all directions.

"Don't worry... we're alright. How... are you feeling?" Hunchback smiled.

"I'm fine now! Thankfully, but something's wrong! I woke up when i heard a big boom and i wanted to get out, but the doors are jammed! And i don't want to break something!"

The two both witnessed 3 explosions sounds simultaneously coming from the refinery. The wardog bike camps were been destroyed when Hunchback looked around behind the huge boulder to see what happened. Much to his surprise, the trio of brigade were coming back to the van.

_[Slow-Motion-Sequence-On]_

Scarecrow, Shirley and Bigfoot were carrying the bags of goods resting on their shoulders back to the van while flames were lifting up behind them in the distance, with survivors cheering sounds.

_[Slow-Motion-Sequence-Off]_

Courage had its eyes widen and stunned like a rock seeing his friends coming back safe. The van's doors suddenly got unlocked. Courage was truly now confused of this, as he finally opened up the door and got out.

"Hey Courage!" Scarecrow smiled seeing the dog again and waved while he went to the rear of the van placing all the goods in its place.

"But- But- But!..."Courage had lost his ability to speak.

Bigfoot rushed towards Courage with groaning in joy and lifted him up in the air for a squeeze hug, as he smiled. Courage was out of words struggling to get air in his lungs. Bigfoot released him and went after Scarecrow to help him inside the van. Shirley came towards Courage as the pink hound asked:

"What happened back there?" I thought i would lose you, guys." his ears drooped waiting for an answer. But Shirley simply replied with:

"Err... " she rolled her eyes and said "Let's just say that the oil price was too much to bear." as she smiled at Courage and went inside the van too. Scarecrow went out with a gas can in hand to refill the engine. While he does that, Courage went inside of the rear van as well seeing the trio was now finally feasting on dog food they have scavenged. Courage's worries lifted up in no time like a feather, as the dog immediately joined them when his stomach begun to growl after seeing all that food. They deserved a well meal after a day's work.

"Shirley?" asked Courage while digging into his can of food.

"Yes, Courage?" she was eating as well.

Courage smiled awkwardly remembering what she said before they left him, and went ahead to say "Don't think i have forgotten your spying speech of me."

He had to say that..

Both Bigfoot and Hunchback choked on their food after hearing that, knowing this may turn into a hail of a storm inside the van, expecting the worse from Shirley. Courage was also expecting a snap from the medium as he shivered in fear but fortunately it didn't happened.

Her ears and two-colored eye were twitching but she finally said "What i said earlier... " attempting to control her words and sighed "...was to cheer you up from your raging issue. I only seen your deeds every time you came after me for help. Not your daily-basis."

Courage was now left stoned but accepted that point, she wasn't entirely a stalker as he thought in his sleep but that didn't seem to bother him either. Shirley of course had other customers to look after, before the apocalypse, but on the other hand, seeing that Courage was her most valuable customer, the pink hound was playing the odds.

Scarecrow finished refilling with gas and tossed out the empty gas can away. And hopped in the driver's seat, starting the engine once again and began their next journey, while the others were eating. Computer's green screen appeared on the dashboard again who quote:

"Oh thank goodness. I wouldn't know how long i could have kept that dog safe from getting out. I was afraid he might lose it again!"

Scarecrow smiled and thanked the Computer for not letting Courage getting out in further danger. It turns out that Computer was more likely to keep Courage trapped inside the cabin. He still had battery juice to react but was afraid of doing it so in front of Courage. The Computer knew the dog might jump out in action in his condition after how he snapped early that day in rage therefor he finally quote again:

"I'll consider the dog's apologies, accepted." the machine seemed to heard everything Courage said to him in the first place, while he went back to idle mode with the map updating progress showing on screen.

And so the Courageous Brigade went onto their next adventure of wandering the wastelands of Nowhere Ruins. With Scarecrow on the wheel, and the night was almost setting up, who knows where they'll end up, as they began liberating the wastelands of Mad Dog's control points.

The vicious wardog lord was more likely far away ahead from Nowhere Ruins. The brigade cannot leave the place until they clear the path allowing them to move to their next location. Of course Courage informed the brigade of Mad Dog's final destination over at Washington D.C. where his citadel is located. The brigade drove in the night time finding some place elsewhere away from the refinery, where they all could rest knowing the wardogs won't be patrolling no more in the region they have been.

* * *

**NOWHERE OIL REFINERY DISMANTLED - WARDOG CAMPS DESTROYED**

_**Mad Dog's wardogs no longer patrols this region.**_

[Nowhere Ruins]

_1 Refinery + 3 Camps = 4 Points Lowered Out of 5._

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point) - (Katz's Control = 2 Points)_

* * *

...

Somewhere far away from the refinery, a ravaging war-cat was done looking through his binoculars, and quickly entered in his car and drove many miles away. He stopped in the middle of nowhere with its headlights still turned on waiting for something. Suddenly a trap door was opened beneath the ground revealing a secret garage entrance to an underground passageway. The cat continued to drive and entered through underground tunnels until he stopped and turned off the headlights. The cat got out of the car and ran towards a spiky covered door guarded by other cats. Their logo on their door was a yellow cat paw with red outline and eight spikes around the paw resembling a spider. The felines let him in as he called out his boss:

"Boss! Hey Boss!"

"Yes?..." it was obvious Katz's voice hidden in the shadows.

"He has awakened."

"Who?"

"The pink dog you told us about."

"The same dog that always haunted my dreams...?" Katz's voice was suddenly pitched up.

"The one and only... and he's not alone. Big Grivus is dead." the random cat answered.

"Pity... and convenient." Katz opened his yellow eyes glaring through the dark.

"Should we track him down and eliminate him?"

"NO!" Katz yelled startling all the cats around him, as they never heard him yell before at all.

"Now i don't care what you do with his... friends, but the dog will live until i say so that it's time." the red feline ordered.

"Time for what?...Man, i don't know about this plan but-" the random cat was interrupted by Katz's left metallic arm with razor sharp-claws almost shredding the cat's neck fur.

"Did i just hear... a betrayal?" his yellow eyes were glowing even more like they were piercing through the random cat's eyes.

"N-n-no sir! Absolutely not at all! No sir! I'm fine by that! We'll leave that mutt alive!" the random cat was merely meeting with death in just a few seconds if he dared to protest more.

"Very good." Katz released him. "I have other plans for him." The random cat turned around and immediately ran out to the surface driving away back to his hiding spot.

"Courage... you don't know how much i can thank you for making my job much easier." Katz spoke to himself while hiding back to the shadows as his spiders were joining him afterwards.

* * *

**THE END of Chapter 2.**

* * *

**_Author's Note.. again:_**

I'll go ahead and say that as much as i said that i don't write stuff much, i said screw it, i'll try my best since i started already to get a hang of FanFiction thing with the story i started here. For those of you who don't know who Big Grivus is, well it's a random character that came out of my mind for a boss fight which i had to include. It's not an official character out of the cartoon. If you ever tried out Mad Max game, then you know that almost each camp occupied must have a big dumb wardog in charge of the respective location while the main antagonist villain doesn't make an appearance again right away.

I truly wanted to give Courage's allies more action than the pink hound himself for the first time here to see what are they truly capable of, in their first mission of travelling around the post-apocalyptic wastelands. I sure hope that this was pretty much challenging for me to organize all the sceneries and dialogues while keeping everyone's personalities unchanged. Even though the mark of the events may change them a bit slightly.

Thanks for reading and let me know the feedbacks!


	3. No Ordinary Dog

**TCB: Chapter 3: No Ordinary Dog**

* * *

**_[Nowhere Ruins]_**

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point) - (Katz's Control = 2 Points)_

* * *

...

_"Courage?"_

...

...

_"Courage..."_

...

...

_"Leave that stupid dog alone, Muriel!"_

...

_"Eustace, i'm so worried he won't wake up."_

...

_"The dog's been sleeping whole day long, i don't see what's the problem! I'm hungry!"_

...

_"Oh Courage please, answer me!"_

...

...

_"Muriel..." the dog called out her owner in his mind._

...

...

_"Please Courage, stay with me!" Muriel cried._

...

...

_"HUNGRY!" Eustace yelled._

...

...

_"Stay strong, my poor Courage!"_

...

...

_"MURIEL!" Courage screamed._

...

...

The owners's voices faded away, following by the sound of heartbeat that was ridiculously louder and beating very fast as if the heart was about to give out due to extreme emotions. It stopped the beat eventually.

...

* * *

The pink hound finally opened his eyes slowly, rubbing his eyes to fully awake. Turns out that he heard his owner's voices in his sleep, or perhaps he was dreaming, but it felt so real like Muriel was whispering right into the dog's ears. He turned his gaze at his friend Scarecrow sitting next to him who was already awake inside the van's cabin and still driving. Courage was sleeping on the passenger seat where Muriel usually sat down.

The early morning air was polluted as ever just like the previous post-apocalyptic days. Fortunately it wasn't that very bad unlike early days since the meteor strike. It was breathable. Courage slowly sat up rubbing his eyes again and his head. His left eye scarred wasn't hurting at all when its closed but it sure left an unpleasant feel as if he still had eye-bag while sleeping, until Computer greeted the 'sleeping beauty'.

"Oh, 'morning dog. Still having nightmares?" Dashboard Computer brought the attention to Scarecrow about Courage. He was focused on the road until he turned his head and spoke:

"Hey Courage, how do you feel?" he smiled a little.

"Not good..." the dog spoke. "And nightmares will always get the best of me..." Courage was rubbing his belly with concern as if he felt a pain ongoing in his stomach. "Didn't you sleep at all?"

"I never slept before, nor i can't. It's my own nature." Scarecrow told. Hence his name, he's always on the lookout for enemies 24/7. That left Courage a bit worried, until Computer recalled about nightmares:

"As if we aren't living already in a reality full of nightmares much worse than before. Everywhere we go now is a death trap." Computer told.

"I... I am.. sorry for... snapping back there at you..." Courage apologizing for unleashing rage at Computer that day.

"Don't worry, i heard your excuses while being shut down. Everyone knows your condition after all and... you don't seem to look good." The machine noticed the dog was feeling dizzy.

"How... how did.. you know there was.. a sniper about to kill me.. back there?" Courage asked while rubbing his forehead too while his stomach growled in unsettled way.

"Your old friend with a camel back can see almost everything ahead of me far away from my front point of view with that telescope of his. I could have seen even more better if i didn't had a broken headlight on my left side, twit. And those wardogs from behind were sensed by that big monster giving me a reason to react. I couldn't drive just straight into a trap so evasive maneuvers were required." Computer explained.

"Are you sick?" Scarecrow asked as he turned his head around looking at the dog feeling his head not in it's place no more.

"Ooooooohh... pull over.." Courage has turned himself green and about to throw up.

"Twit, we can't stop. There may be wardogs still watching us and-" then Computer got interrupted by Courage's mad and sick accent.

"PULL OVER!" The dog yelled until his eyes got widen and his cheeks were now inflated. Paws were blocking his mouth.

Scarecrow slammed the van's brakes quickly to a stop at the side of the road for Courage to immediately get out and vomited everything he had in his stomach behind a rock. Leaving Scarecrow concerned, Computer sighed and said:

"It would've been wise, if the dog wasn't eating very fast all that food, after a long time of no food at all." he recalled about critical indigestion.

"How do you know that?" Scarecrow asked.

"I know a savage dog eating sound when i hear one. Thankfully i didn't get to see it too." Computer chuckled.

"Well that's a waste." Scarecrow noted the wasted food, while looking at Courage coming back, and gained his pink color back too. The dog barely even walked properly after that.

The other occupants of the van didn't seem to bother the unexpected stop since Hunchback was always on the lookout too. Although his fear of letting anymore nearby enemies approach has given him a reason to stay awake last night. Bigfoot was still sleeping and Shirley was meditating. The brigade still had a few remaining cans of food and water but those will last only for another day or two. And only two gas cans were left. They had to look out again for resources as every battle they might come across will always have a price to cost.

The van started to run again, once Courage hopped in, he still felt unpleasant and Scarecrow returned his attention back on the road. Computer asking the dog, "Relieved now, twit?"

"Don't ask..." Courage was half sick now and half frustrated.

"Please, don't eat that very fast next time." Scarecrow added and Courage nodded solemnly.

Without further jokes, Computer returned to idle mode with map updating on the screen. The machine knew if he was about to argue more with the dog, he would soon trigger his fury state again, and that's the last thing Courage or his friends would need in hard times like these. Fight for survival, no love from his owners, and self-control.

Courage was also very afraid, what if he may become a vicious dog looking for blood, a state unlikely to be controlled once it fully takes over. The pink hound truly wouldn't want that to attack his only friends left, if he had to deal with hostiles all by himself or helping the brigade. But his attitude remains neutral. Deep inside his chest, the dog's heart was already on stake as the meter arc was in between cowardly happiness and raging insanity.

The vehicle was now approaching, without any surprises to come across yet, to a small abandoned building resembling a diner. Only the 'skeleton' structures seems to be left intact while its walls were still crumbling into dust, and no roof at all. It was all but a huge mess filled with sand as well as if a plane just crashed through the diner's roof.

Scarecrow took notice of it and decided to pull over again at this location. Obviously there couldn't be any random survivor living in a place that has no roof at least, so he decided to scavenge the area. And seeing that it wasn't 'restored' at least, it could mean that no enemies ever bothered to occupy it.

"I'll go and see if there's something useful here." Scarecrow's accent remained mysteriously overprotective due to its personality, but in under certain circumstances, it was better off with somebody else beside him. Going out all alone doesn't seem very wise in these wasteland parts.

"Can i go with you too?" Courage asked.

"No, you stay here." Scarecrow told.

"But i'm feeling much better now, trust me!" The dog truly wasn't better at all in his soul, but as much as he's trying to be himself unchanged regardless of the apocalypse disaster, he still tries to make a good impression that he's not the type of dog to give up by a stupid fury rage plague. Scarecrow nodded, giving the dog a chance.

"Well alright. Hey, you uhh... machine. Keep an eye out on the others." Scarecrow was addressing to Computer.

"Right. Right. Take your time. We'll be buried soon by this sand wind long before anyone else notices us." he joked again.

Scarecrow and Courage were now gone searching the diner ruins, before the dog could ever step 'inside' with his friend, he noticed a huge advertising billboard buried in sand almost not readable at all due to moss and rust. _"B...R...S ...EAL... CH...P..."_

Courage gaining back his thoughts, he immediately recognized where they were, he sighed looking back up around the area and quote:

"Looks like we won't be ordering cheap burgers this time... or ever again." His ears drooped in sadness and whined with thoughts of what ever happened here, or how Jean Bon would've reacted too during the apocalypse. Sadly there was no sign at all of the pig owner around, only mess in every corner around.

Inside the van, Shirley still with her eyes closed and meditating asked "Where are we now?"

Hunchback turned himself around away from his telescope saying "We stopped... To a small...ruined shack... the dog and Scarecrow... left to find loot, miss medium..."

"No surprises?" She added.

"No..." The old man shook his head while grabbing his bell-cane for stability.

"You should sleep, you need it old man." The medium knew Hunchback didn't slept at all since their last event, but the old man felt way too optimistic about it.

"I may be old... but i'll be resting... when i feel like it... don't worry, i'm used to it." Being used to live like a hobo away from social life due to everyone were judging him by his appearance gave him enough reason to stand up without being intimidated. Shirley didn't argue with that.

Bigfoot yawned and was now awaken from his good long sleep. Slowly sat up and stretching his back, looking at his friends he waved his arm in a form of 'hi' then he went out of the van for some air, at least he wasn't very hungry yet again after how much he ate that day. But as soon as the big guy left out of the van a mere few steps away, he felt a strange sense while sniffing deeply, as if he might been here before, or someone who has encountered Bigfoot could be around.

"Something doesn't feel right. It's way too quiet." The gypsy told.

Shirley was trying to sense anything unusual in her meditation state. She initiated it to regain her power back of contacting the dead at least, but seeing how they didn't encountered a single wardog since their last adventure, was downright strange. Nothing is silent around the occupied wasteland with hostiles.

Courage was looking for anything useful around, yet nothing seems to be out of ordinary besides large amount of spider webs, shattered windows, broken chairs, small bones and no doors. Scarecrow was beginning to give up on his search until he accidentally hit with his boot, a floor trapdoor handle right next to the kitchen entrance. The pink dog noticed the clang noise and went to check on his friend.

"You found something?" Courage asked.

"A trapdoor leading to the basement i suppose?" Scarecrow replied.

"Huh..? I don't remember this being here at all." Courage was trying to remember the diner layout, and he certainly knew that the only door leading down in the cellar was on their left side, not on the floor. The cellar door frame was blocked by a huge boulder so that's out of the picture.

Someone must have created another new entrance leading underground, if not on the surface. Without any questions, Scarecrow tried to pry open it but it was shut tight. Courage tried to help him but both of them became exhausted after too much pulling effort. They both panted, then Courage picked up a stick to shove it under the hatch door, but it breaks after lifting it.

Scarecrow went ahead to find something more durable like a crowbar yet much to his surprise he found one under the counter. All rusty looking but it'll do.

"I think i'll keep this thing." Scarecrow added. "Stand back, Courage." The dog gets out of the way as Scarecrow was now determined to break through the hatch. Eventually after more pulling effort, he pried opened it, destroying the trapdoor in the process.

They both look down and seen a ladder leading to nothing but pitch black darkness. Courage hesitated to climb down the ladder. "I- I- I'm not g-going d-down there." The dog shivered in fear.

"Hmm, we need a light source. A torch or something." Scarecrow suggested. Then an idea formed up inside Courage's mind. He went to pick up the two wooden sticks he just snapped while trying to open the hatch, some nearby rocks and made a small firepit.

The dog started to rub the sticks each other harder on the rocks until smoke was coming out. Scarecrow immediately took out a few of his hays from his right arm to help the fire grow. Placing the hays on the firepit it did helped and they had themselves some good warming light. Luckily for them, there wasn't any sign of sandstorm yet affecting the fire.

Now Scarecrow had a torch and climbed down the ladder. Courage was following him too now that there was light after he puts out the fire. Once they both reached the bottom of the pit, they have found a long underground tunnel.

'The things i do for love..' thought Courage, feeling claustrophobic through corridor was enough to make his heart pounding very fast. Finally the corridor begun to widen to a much larger area. Somebody truly was living here. They stopped and found some food and another water collector. Along with some mattresses and blankets on the floor scattered around the.. bunker? The area was already lit up by a few candles hanging on the walls.

"Yay!" The pink hound cheered believing their search came to an end after seeing all this and didn't waited any second to rush into the bunker.

"Wait Courage, stop! It could be a-" Scarecrow tried to warn the dog but it was too late.

As soon as Courage reached for the can of food sitting on a mattress, he immediately threw it away after he has seen the horror in it, dead rats. Suddenly a gate was piercing through the ceiling and sealed the tunnel they came through. Both were stunned by the gate closing sound. Now Courage was stuck in the bunker, leaving Scarecrow on the other side of the tunnel with the gate closed.

"...A TRAP!" Scarecrow shouted. He puts the torch down and tried to lift the gate back up with his bare hands but he was interrupted by Courage's loud scream.

"Courage." Shirley quote after she recognized that scream. The medium snapped her eyes open from meditation.

Courage witnessed one huge spider coming after him from the opposite way through another tunnel. This whole area was one of Katz's warcat bunkers all along.

Back on the surface outside, Bigfoot heard the scream as well as his sniffing senses confirmed that he has been here before. Katz's territory. The big monster ran fast reaching for the scream source. Shirley and Hunchback got out of the van until Computer stopped them saying:

"Oh-hoo! Wait a minute! Who's gonna look out after me?"

The medium clenched her teeth in annoyance, and told her friend to guard the van. "You, stay. And look after the stupid machine." She ran immediately after Bigfoot as she said that.

"I'm not stupid." Computer replied. Hunchback shook his head in disbelief.

Courage was preparing to engage the spider which it was twice as big than an ordinary one due to shock-wave mutation. The spider jumped towards him but the dog dodged avoiding his attack. Scarecrow was slamming the gate with his punches but it was no use, seeing Courage in danger he was determined to save the dog. He tried the crowbar and still won't budge.

Katz may have ordered his warcats not do any harm to Courage yet, but his insects beg to differ. On the other side of the tunnel from where the huge spider came, two warcats came to the scene to watch the underground brawl. They both were shocked to see Courage facing their beloved 'weapon pet' trapped as well in the bunker like in an arena. Warcats cannot do anything about it, otherwise they'll be chewed to pieces by the spider.

The insect unleashed his cobweb to trap Courage in a cocoon. This time the dog failed to dodge it, one of his limb was stuck on the web as the dog was struggling to free himself. Courage was quickly covered in a cocoon by the spider's sewing speed, then his meal was ready. This was it... Courage's screaming in terror faded away, as the cocoon was quickly covering the dog mouth very tight.

Shirley and Bigfoot finally came to Scarecrow still struggling to open the gate, while the warcats were hiding in the shadows shuddering and watching their pet about to devour the dog. Even though that would cost their very own lives by Katz. The brigade screamed their fellow friend's name "COURAGE!"

Courage while being trapped in the cocoon, after so many attempts to free himself, was about to boil his blood to a very hot temperature. The screams of fear were replaced with growls of a real dog in rage, heard from within the white cocoon as it was shaking uncontrollably.

Then it happened... Insanity took over Courage.

A pink paw with very sharp claws ripped through out the cocoon, clawing the spider's face and fangs. That knocked the spider slightly few inches away shrieking in pain. Courage's friends gasped with their eyes widen. Another paw ripped out the cocoon, and eventually Courage was now free in a very terrifying pose. Barking like a little pink killing weredog. His eyes were all red without pupils, his fur was ruffled and his teeth were very large and sharp, as the dog was on his all 4 limbs with deadly claws ready to kill everyone on sight.

"No...!" Shirley remained horrified by this transformation. Bigfoot wasted no time and helps out Scarecrow to lift up the gate with full force he ever had. The gate was starting to rise up and Bigfoot lifted all the way back up. Scarecrow entered the bunker but stops both Shirley and Bigfoot from getting closer to Courage. Bigfoot has to keep the gate risen up, cause it'll shut down back if he lets it go.

"Hold on! We might get hurt too." Scarecrow told, while Bigfoot was talking gibberish again meaning that he wants to help Courage.

The pink beast in full rage mode was biting off the spider's legs leaving the insect temporarily immobilized. Still growling in fury he jumped on the spider's head and clawed its face over and over again. Shirley took her heart out and jumps into action in the middle of the fight.

"Miss Medium!" Scarecrow called her out. Bigfoot had his jaws dropped.

"Courage!" Shirley screamed interrupting the fight.

Courage's ears perked up as he was almost finished with his opponent. He turned his head around gazing the little green medium. He jumped off the knocked out spider and was slowly approaching to Shirley, still growling and barked once.

"Eek! Easy there, boy.." The gypsy was moving back slowly. "We are your friends, remember?" She clearly was in a very delicate situation, as she was quickly thinking of something that might snap Courage out of this state. Without her magic she was an easy prey.

Both warcats along with Scarecrow and Bigfoot were watching the intense moment of what possibly could happen next. The spider was slowly waking up from all that beating and bites.

Shirley immediately thought of Courage's owners and was about to give it a try:

"Your Muriel would not want this! Neither do we! This isn't you at all, listen good!" she was pointing at herself and their friends. Courage was still approaching slowly towards Shirley in fury almost about to attack her.

Scarecrow felt the urge of saving Shirley away from ravaging Courage's sight, but in by doing so, he will be attacked first then, then he would've had no choice but to hurt his friend in the process. So he stood still on his ground. Bigfoot was keeping the gate open for their escape.

Finally Shirley couldn't believe herself she was now begging with her life showing emotions in front of the pink beast.

"Please Courage.. stay with us!... with me! The medium begged with her ears drooped.

Suddenly...

_"Please stay with me Courage!"_ Muriel's crying voice came straight into Courage's mind after what Shirley said. Just like in his dream.

...

Courage gasped and stopped his tracks, no longer growling.

Suddenly he closed his raging eyes and his paws were on top of his head again as if his brain was burning. Now he was sitting on his legs instead of all 4 limbs. His mind went out of control and begun to howl like a werewolf very loud.

On the surface, the van Computer heard that howl. "Wasn't that... Courage?" Computer recognized that voice. Hunchback was looking around in fear and quote "I- I believe so?"

Did that worked? Everyone didn't said a word after the dog's howl, since they plugged their ears from that loud howl noise. Suddenly Courage collapsed himself entirely on the floor falling face flat. Panting very fast, he returns back to his own normal self. A few seconds of silence was in the bunker, until Scarecrow quickly rushed to pick up Courage away out of here.

"I'll take Courage! Miss medium, get those water supplies! Now!" He ordered. Shirley after seeing the dog's condition, didn't spoke a word and nodded. She quickly ran to the water collector and grabbed every single bottle of water stored.

The spider now fully awake but still twitching in pain ran quickly to attack them as they went back through the tunnel they came. As soon as the spider came close enough to Bigfoot, the big monster let the gate loose on top of the spider, squishing the insect finally. Bigfoot was now following his friends back to the surface after being disgusted by his kill.

The warcats ran away too to their respective vehicles. They weren't going to let them escape.

The underground tunnel wasn't very long to get lost in the darkness and the brigade reached for the ladder. They climbed the hell out of there quickly and reached the van back on the surface. Bigfoot climbed up last and before he was entering the van, he went and picked up the huge boulder blocking the basement door and threw it down into the hatch, making it unaccessible.

The sound of ravaging vehicle engines can be heard from underground meaning the warcats were about to drive off. The entire brigade returned back to the van, with Scarecrow on the wheel. Courage was brought inside the van still unconscious with Shirley and Hunchback looking after him. Bigfoot was guarding the rear growling with frustration. Computer asked:

"Just what in the world happened down there?" He didn't get a proper answer after all, as his friends were trying now to escape with their precious lives.

"Drive! DRIVE!" Scarecrow demanded, as he hit harder the accelerate pedal and drove away from the diner.

Out of the underground sand nearby the diner, popped out two spiky and rusty vehicles armed with razor-sharp spinning blade-like rims attached to its wheels rushing towards the van in high speed driven by warcats. Another road chase begun between the courageous brigade and Katz's gang. Both vehicles tried to 'sandwich' the van by cutting off each side of the van with its rim blades. One of the warcats shouted, "Stop that van! We won't hurt that mutt!" He didn't sound very convincing.

Scarecrow of course refused, he slammed the brakes quickly for them to go ahead and let the warcats cutting themselves instead, but both vehicles avoided each other from getting their tires cut off. Now the warcats were in front of the van. One warcat car was about to be hit head-on by an incoming scrapulance driven by a wardog.

It looked like a pick-up truck with lots of scrap and resources scavenged for Mad Dog. But driving in Katz's territory? It seems that they always proclaimed themselves superiors than cats therefor they were invading areas wherever they pleased, despite the consequences.

"This is going to hurt me more than you, pal." Computer addressing to the front vehicle.

Seeing this moment, Scarecrow rammed the rear of the warcat car forcing it to get on the opposite lane, the wardog truck couldn't evade and eventually...

_**CRASH!**_

The warcat car and the wardog truck made a head-on collision, spreading all the scrap and resources gathered, all over the road. Their drivers were knocked out cold. One warcat car was driving in front of the van blocking its way. Computer quote again, "I'd say now this driving sensation is quite painful now. I know i've seen many accidents all over the internet pages before but getting to feel it for real is too much."

"Get used to it." Scarecrow told while focusing on the enemy.

Suddenly the warcat car in front of the van made a quick U-Turn and heading the opposite way past the van. Both Computer and Scarecrow remained confused by this move. Did that feline gave up the chase? As soon as the enemy car was left all the way behind out of the sight, Computer suddenly stopped the van without Scarecrow's will, screeching its tires in the process.

"I'm sorry but this is as far as i can go." The machine added.

"Why? Why did you stopped!?" Scarecrow yelled.

"First i don't like damaging myself more than i am already, and second I detect strange metallic objects underneath us, very unlikely to be just rocks. Your friend also called out the stop."

"What? Who?" Scarecrow was now confused.

Out of the rear van came out Shirley and went towards the front of the vehicle. She said, "The machine is right." when she reached to Scarecrow. The medium gently dusted off the object in front of the vehicle, it felt very metallic. Scarecrow got out of the van looking around to see if nobody comes after them, then he asks Shirley prompting, "What is that?"

The medium finished off cleaning the metal object carefully and much to their shock, it was an explosive landmine.

"We are in a minefield now..." Shirley told after looking at their death just waiting to be triggered. "I sensed the grim reaper's presence as i was looking after Courage. I told the stupid machine to stop immediately when you crashed into that vehicle with cats."

"But i didn't even heard your call." Scarecrow told while scratching his hair, confused.

"You were too focused on your target to notice me." Shirley rolled her eyes.

"That explains why that vehicle we were chasing turned around and ran away. He was dragging us into another trap." Computer told. "And again, i'm not stupid!"

"Stay put and don't move or else we all die, that includes you." Shirley told Computer, as she went back inside the van to Courage.

"Oh for the love of... Who puts a mine field in the middle of the road like this? It doesn't make sense. And how did that wardog truck even passed that minefield when we came in without blowing himself up?" Computer asked.

The only theory would be is when you get to know your enemy, you have to know their land as well. But Shirley didn't bother to explain more to the machine since she was more concerned about Courage. Bigfoot and Hunchback came to Scarecrow as he was thinking of a solution. "We have to disarm this thing."

"How?" Hunchback asked.

Scarecrow looks around the landmine and notices two colored wires connected. Red one and blue one. "It looks like it some has strange colored wires on the side of it. Maybe a bolt cutter will do, but where?"

Bigfoot turned his head back after listening to his friend, and started to talk in gibberish again pointing at the wrecked scrapulance in the distance.

"Perhaps that truck full of scrap left behind in the incident may have something useful, just like the big monster is trying to say." Computer translated for Bigfoot, the monster nodded.

"We can go... and search." Hunchback suggested.

"No, you've done far too much and you haven't even slept. Go back inside and rest. I'll go with Bigfoot." Scarecrow ordered.

"Please make it quick and get rid of this little bugger away from the road. We're feeling way too exposed out here, and don't forget to fill me up with gas when you come back. I'm almost shutting down again." Computer told. "That rusty old car better not come back here again."

They didn't replied. As soon as Bigfoot and Scarecrow were gone by foot back to the wreckage, Hunchback honestly felt a bit tired for his age, despite that he wanted to stay awake due to his fear of any possible danger incoming. But if he wanted to help his friends more, he needed all the energy he could get. So Hunchback listened to Scarecrow, he went back inside and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Shirley's paws were laid on Courage's head. His temperature was quite warm, not very hot anymore. With her eyes closed, she tried to sense anything that could be within Courage's subconscious mind. "Love... Fear... Tragedy... Pain... Darkness... " She whispered. All of these were inside the dog's head so far. Normally Shirley doesn't read anybody else's minds, but if she wanted to locate exactly the source of Courage's rage, Shirley had to rely on her medium instincts she had recovered (if not entirely) to track down the... "Demon!" She spoke and gasped.

Shirley opened her eyes up, rising her paws off Courage's head instantly as if she has seen a nightmare. Courage was still breathing regularly. But unknown if he was able to wake up after that raging state. "This is bad." She quote silently without waking up Hunchback, while looking at Courage. "Really... bad."

In the meantime, Scarecrow and Bigfoot reached the wreckage to scavenge for loot. Much to their delight they have found extra gas cans and dog food still intact after accident. A few pieces of metal scrap to repair their damaged van, a kettle, some wooden cups and luckily... a bolt cutter, found by Bigfoot.

"Good boy." Scarecrow patted Bigfoot. The monster was now helping his friend carrying the goods back to their vehicle. The enemy drivers were still being left knocked out in the middle of the road.

Finally Courage was able to wake up hardly as he was laid down on a mattress covered in blanket. He tries to sit up but Shirley sets him back down.

"You are not going anywhere, dog." The gypsy told with her paw touching Courage's chest.

"Sh- Shirley? Ow..." Courage had yet again a headache, followed by a coughing.

"Here. Drink!" she immediately gave the dog a full bottle of water. Courage wiped his mouth of saliva, sits back up slightly then took a few water gulps.

"It is okay now. You are safe. Don't wake up Hunchback." she whispered.

Courage moved his head gazing the sight of his old man friend asleep already, then went ahead to lay back down asking, "What... happened?" Shirley of course didn't want to scare the dog again telling what she had found out earlier, the medium tries to come up with an excuse that could not stress out Courage more.

She was looking away for a moment, making Courage even more concerned. The pink dog felt really tired again after his rage mood, then he called her out from her thoughts again. "Shirley... What is it?" he spoke in a very sad pose.

"Oh, uuuh..." The medium turns around facing Courage. "You... had... a certain accident. You got knocked over by that big spider, then we rescued you." She lies only half way.

"I remember.. that insect." Courage puts a paw on his forehead. "Did someone else.. got hurt?"

"No. None of that case fortunately." Shirley told. Then she tells to herself in mind 'But a rage feasting demon stuck inside you forever is certainly unfortunate...' She closed her eyes in pain.

Scarecrow and Bigfoot returned, the big guy looked inside the van seeing Shirley talking with Courage and Hunchback sleeping. He quietly puts all the loot inside and sneaks in tip toes. Sitting next to Hunchback he tries to fall asleep again. Apparently he stays more awake when he's hungry, however he wasn't feeling like eating anything at the moment so he goes back to sleep.

Computer told Scarecrow "About time, i was about to lose my patience. Got anything to get rid of this mine?"

"Right here." He shows up the bolt cutter.

"As far as i remember landmines needs to be treated with absolutely extreme care, one wrong move and it's the end of the road for us." The machine spoke.

"Hmm, which wire... red or blue?" Scarecrow remained very nervous about to cut one of the wires. He may seemed a great mechanic but was never an expert at explosions.

"I don't know i'm not a bomb or landmine expert. Figure it out yourself, kid. And fast."

Scarecrow was starting to lose his patience already, without hesitating many times, he has chosen to cut the blue wire. Yet he did it after he closed his button eyes behind his sunglasses bracing the explosion if he failed. Luckily nothing was blown to smithereens.

"Did i... disabled it?" Scarecrow asked still nervously.

"Only one way to find out." Computer told as the machine started up the engine. It was moving quite slowly forward towards the landmine, as soon as Scarecrow got out of the way. The van tire touched the landmine and runs it over with ease. Scarecrow smiled, he lifted many weights of worries of his chest by this success.

"Well that did the trick." Computer directed the van past the disabled landmine. "And without a doubt there are more of these around."

"Maybe we can ask the medium to track them down all the way through the field." Scarecrow suggested.

"I heard that." Shirley went out of the rear van and hopped inside the cabin on the passenger seat. She stretched her arms in front with her eyes closed and called out Scarecrow to drive. "Get in."

Scarecrow hopped in as well on the wheel and started to drive again, with Shirley attempting to locate the mines in her trance.

"Ahem, fuel please." Computer reminded Scarecrow of gas.

"Oh right." Scarecrow nodded as he got out and went to pick up another gas can from the rear loot to refill.

Shirley sighed. Computer asked now the medium about Courage's condition. "Can you inform me about the dog's situation? What was that inexplicably howl about back there?"

"You do not want to know..." she told. "And what more can you do if i tell you?"

"Well, then i'd be sure not to spoil anything if it's something more important than what i already know from Courage. Either the dog howled in fear, or pain by some sort of trap. But you don't seem to trust me in a bit, as far as i recall."

"Okay. But if you tell just one thing about it in front of Courage that may upset him even more, i will not hesitate to curse you when i get my sax back." Shirley growled.

"I'm a machine, i cannot be cursed. And i know your methods from what Courage spoke to me before." Computer told.

"Will this method seems to appeal you?" The medium pulled out her mallet threatening Computer.

"You can destroy me now and you all will be left in the middle of the desert. Breaking Courage's heart even more than he is. I don't get it what's so secretive about this."

"Because..." Shirley's expression turned to sadness with her ears drooped, lowering her mallet. She knew Computer was Courage's only family member left. It was only genuine to explain the machine even though she didn't seem to trust it given his sarcastic behavior voice and attitude. She sighed and finally quote. "...Courage is the _demon..._"

"I beg your pardon?" dashboard Computer remained confused.

"That is all you need to know for now. I hope you keep your word on." Shirley replied with annoyance and went back to her detecting objects trance closing her eyes again.

"I really don't like the sound of that..." Computer said, making the gypsy growl in frustration reminding him to keep his mouth shut.

"Okay, okay. I won't tell him. But will the others should know?" The machine asked.

"Only when that time comes. We had enough trouble for today. We are doing this for Courage's sake and the safety of others remaining." Shirley told, as the Computer went back to idle mode.

With the van now filled with gas, it was time to go now. Every time they stopped and found more mines located by the medium, they disabled it to make the road more clear. And this will more likely drop down a control point of Katz's territory within the range of Nowhere Ruins. However Katz was more likely living somewhere far away attempting to get his paws on Mad Dog himself.

Neither Katz or Mad Dog knew their territories were about to be taken over for now. Katz's spy from that other day reporting about Big Grivus's death was knocked out in the accident while the other one who ran away, left Nowhere Ruins already.

Courage was now laid down still on the mattress inside the van as they drove, still wondering for real what happened since Shirley didn't seem to explain more in details. He whimpered in sadness again until he closed his eyes to sleep as well beside his two other allies. The wrecked diner was now sealed and the mine field was almost clear for 'public traffic'. Very soon they will reach out of Nowhere Ruins to their next location.

And the courageous brigade was about to face off an incoming sandstorm after a long time of no storms at all since the meteor strike. Thunders and lightnings were lit up in the dark sky, while huge sand clouds covered up the horizon where the van was heading now. The team didn't seem to bother it as they got used to it with this sudden weather changes, except for Courage of course.

The pink dog was now hiding completely under the blanket in fear as the van ran through the sandstorm shaking the vehicle a little bit. Random objects were thrown in the air up in the sky by the storm blowing speed. The storm lasted about few hours and the allies moved once again to their next adventure. Then again.. a demon inside Courage. Could it be a supernatural evil encounter or is it something that grew up within Courage's inner self through whole life describing the insanity of losing the ones you mostly love repeatedly? ... One way or another, truth will be revealed.

* * *

**SPIDERS REALLY CHEAP BUNKER SEALED - MINEFIELD CLEARED OUT.**

_**Katz's warcats no longer patrols this region.**_

[Nowhere Ruins]

_1 Bunker + The minefield = 2 Points Lowered Out of 2._

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point - Katz's Control = 0)_

* * *

...

Panting sound was been heard in the middle of the wasteland as we see an orange fox running and sweating, without stopping followed by Mad Dog's wardog gang.

"Hey, hey wait a minute guys! I don't recall someone mentioning about fox hunting season!" Cajun Fox ran faster from the incoming wardog bikers somewhere far away out of Nowhere Ruins towards a different location, but the fox didn't seem to evade the chains thrown at his legs by wardogs.

The fox tripped as he was now tied up in chains, the wardogs were now surrounding him. Cajun looking at the wild pack, he was all terrified, and waited if someone was about to make a fox stew out of him.

"P-p-please, c-c-can't we w-w-work this out?" Cajun barely tried to speak. The wardogs lifts him back up from the ground.

"Mad Dog is coming!" One of wardogs shouted.

That perked Cajun's ears up not liking the sound of that.

Suddenly the huge twisted vehicle with tank tracks driven by the wardog lord parked nearby its prey captured by his loyalists. Mad Dog looked down at Cajun as he jumps off his vehicle. Approaching slowly while breathing hot air into his metallic muzzle nose. He shouted to his barking wardogs:

"You've hunted well, boys." The wardogs were bowing down before their leader. "And here's the fox who thought he'd plunder from me." Mad Dog's eerie voice gave enough chill through the fox's spine. He smacked down Cajun's face twice with his powerful punches knocking the fox on the ground.

"We move out now!" He returns to his vehicle as the wardogs brought the unconscious Cajun back with them. Mad Dog sniffed a few times asking to himself, "Where can you be... Bunny?"

The wardogs with Mad Dog leading them left the scene towards an abandoned artillery base rebuilt afterwards. The base was located somewhere nearby M.D.'s citadel acting as a buffer zone, meaning that no one can enter the area without permission. Otherwise they'll be shot down on sight by the artillery cannon.

Cajun Fox was thrown in a butcher like room by wardogs, where Charlie The Mouse was waiting already. The fox slowly wakes up seeing the giant rat looking at him, and faints. Charlie shook his head and quote, "You've gotta be kidding me. I hate cooking foxes." He drags Cajun to a closet and locks him up for now. "Don't worry buddy. Lucky for you i prefer cheese, you'll be out of here in no time." He blinked while Cajun was groaning in pain attempting to speak: "You don't say..."

* * *

**THE END of Chapter 3.**

* * *

**_Author's Note:_** Merry Christmas fellow readers and writers! :) (25-Dec-2019)


	4. A Moment Of Recreation

**TCB: Chapter 4: A Moment Of Recreation**

* * *

**_[Nowhere Ruins]_**

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point) - (Katz's Control = Zero)_

* * *

Before we march into our current status of our beloved courageous heroes of the wasteland, let's not forget to recap so far the past events that has been causing the brigade so much trouble to survive and restore peace at the very least. Hopefully in more explicit details that shouldn't be enough to spoil the future cost.

In particular, Courage the cowardly dog as we know is changed a lot, even though he doesn't admit it or he's too afraid to face the truth since the meteor strike and the Bagge's funeral. Nobody expects a war for love being pretty, but when insanity strikes over someone that loses so many things or people they used to love and share life through years repeatedly, that respective 'someone' becomes depressive or even worse, a vicious killer looking for redemption.

Luckily Courage is two-faced, while he still has the same cowardly personality from the outside, deep inside his soul is still broken with thoughts of the past life infected in his mind. If those thoughts were shattered during the meteor strike making the dog amnesic, let's just say that, ...not even his own remaining friends would have lived by now. Which is why this is the true meaning of a wardog enemy who is worshiping a twisted doberman like Mad Dog, or a warcat to Katz.

When an animal or human is unable to remember anything from before the disaster, once it is awaken, could be confused, neutral or straight evil, depending on how that living being is raised, rescued or kidnapped by an enemy who's in the same state but with greater purpose. Or a fellow friendly survivor looking for answers they ask themselves, if it's worth to be given a second chance in life.

What has the Courageous Brigade done so far, was to save the remaining survivors and explore new locations formed up after the apocalypse, until they reach their final destination of tracking down their arch-enemy, Mad Dog. And apparently Courage's condition couldn't get any much worse than before. Seeing how his sanity dropped radically when he faced the giant spider, and chilled afterwards by the thoughts of his lost owners, confirms that this could be the only way to snap out of rage.

But that was without a doubt by luck since the dog heard Muriel's whisper in his dream beforehand. If this never happened at the beginning, Shirley would've been finished, or Scarecrow would've had no choice but to hurt Courage, responding with violence back in Katz's warcat bunker. Fortunately this wasn't the case, cause surprisingly Courage's past memories never died after the disaster. As his cowardly brave soul still remains warm as his heart of fire from his inner... demonic persona installed which became one with the dog. According to Shirley, this was the source of his raging insanity, triggered by the sensation of losing everything he loved the most. His parents, his belongings, his owners and now having the fear of losing his friends left during the end of the world. These are the marks that won't ever be brushed off Courage's fur.

How much a dog can bear is way too exhausting... One way or another, Courage would have to hear the truth himself about his hidden pain formed. His other friends no doubt will support him no matter the cost. They all had to stay united cause separating themselves in these hostile wastelands is definitely not a good idea. Only Computer and Hunchback never seen the dog rage in full pose so far, but that doesn't mean their time won't come in which they wish they shouldn't. Even though the machine knows less from the medium's discovery, the brigade decides to not bring up panic to Courage's "good side"... yet.

With that out of way, we return back to our current story.

* * *

It was still night time. The low sound of bell ringing coming from outside, made Courage to wake up again from his sleep inside the van. He finds out that nobody else was in the vehicle except him. Courage sat up looking around until he noticed a light coming through the window.

"Huh? Bells?" The dog perked his left ear up and recognized the sound, it could be Hunchback playing with his bell cane. Not only he heard the bell playing but he sensed also a sweet cooking smell.

The dog got up from his mattress and headed towards the window where the ongoing light lit up the van inside. Outside his friends pulled over and set up a campfire next to another huge boulder, while in the horizon, the sight of Mount Nowhere can be seen. They are so close of getting out of Nowhere Ruins!

Courage then went over and popped his head out from the rear van's curtain, looking at Scarecrow and Bigfoot sitting on old rusty car wreckage cooking their meal. It was dead lizard meat hanging on top of the fire like barbeque with some cans of dog food on the side next to campfire. Hunchback kept playing with his bell in form of a music to keep the mood up, even though one bell didn't seem to work out in changing music notes. While Scarecrow was cooking, Bigfoot kept whispering his lost owner "Mommy..." as he was looking around in pain and sadness beside his meal.

Courage felt the big monster's pain after seeing him all curled up warming himself to the fire, therefor he hops out of the van and joins his friends.

"Courage! You're awake!" Scarecrow shouted and relieved to see him back to normal.

"Hey guys, what'cha doing? Barbeque time?" the pink dog smiled at the sight of this and sits down next to Bigfoot. The monster gave him a happy glance for a change, even though he was horrified by Courage's transformation last time except for Hunchback and Computer.

"Pretty much." Dashboard Computer spoke."There was no sign of hostile activity for a few good hours since we almost cleaned up most of the land, therefor your friends decided to stop for a break and cook sacrificed reptiles. Which seems to be out of ordinary and disgusting to me. That monster with hairy feet captured the so called 'dinner'." The machine argued. Courage rolled his eyes.

Hunchback stopped playing, then Scarecrow said, "Don't worry Courage, if you don't like it you can always eat dog food only instead." and Bigfoot nodded. However the dog still had an empty stomach after he felt sick and eliminated everything out. Courage couldn't resist the smell of that barbeque even when he seemed to be disgusted by the lizard, the cooking smell was actually quite pleasing and similar of a roasted chicken.

"I can actually.. try it, i want to lay off of dog food for a while." In these hard times, everyone including Courage had to get used to with what they could find and eat, and the dog cannot take a "no" for an answer if survival was critical for their lives.

Courage then noticed somebody was missing, Shirley. The dog perked his ears and eyes up widen from the campfire and looks around for the medium. He sees her sitting on top of the boulder gazing the mountain and the sky covered by smoke clouds, just a few steps away from their camp place. But the source from that smoke was coming straight from atop of the mountain. Courage scratched his head confused.

"Isn't Shirley coming to eat with us?" Courage asked.

"Miss medium... said... she's not hungry... and wanted to... be alone for a bit." Hunchback told.

Scarecrow then rotated the lizard meat impaled on the stick until it was completely fried and ready for dinner. The lizard has quite actually a decent size almost long as a medium snake. Not too long and not too short. It was skinned alive and decapitated leaving only torso flesh to be consumed and it's tail was long enough to satisfy the rest of the hunger.

"Are you okay?" Courage asked Bigfoot with concern. The big guy was half hungry and half traumatized by the past events. Bigfoot nodded as if he was indeed alright but Courage knew he wasn't.

"Your name's Theodore, right? That's how your... mommy called you." Courage remembered Bigfoot's name back when the angry mob was about to raid the farmhouse until his adoptive mother called him out.

Bigfoot again nodded in agreement with a huge smile on his face and hugged Courage. The dog smiled too that he wasn't squished to death this time by Bigfoot's hugging strength. Courage's smile turned back to sad face telling, "I'm.. i'm sorry but.. who knows. Maybe i'm sure your mommy is still out there looking after you."

Courage's thoughts simply was in a metaphoric state. Meaning that Bigfoot's mother could have not survived just like his owners. So he said it in a way that could not stress out Bigfoot. The big monster then released him looking at Courage like he was the best friend he ever had after giving Bigfoot positive and optimistic thoughts.

"Aren't you... hungry?" Hunchback asked Scarecrow.

"No. I don't eat." he replied. Making the old man worried he asked again, "But you... never tried... at least once?"

"I don't have a stomach." He was made out of hays obviously. "Even if i eat there is nowhere the food should go.."

"How are you alive then?" dashboard Computer insisted in asking more about Scarecrow. "Was it by a magical fairy?" He giggled.

"No. I was... just a normal scarecrow. Lifeless, bitten by crows and forgotten. Until Muriel fixed me with all of her love and care, it gave me a new life to experience."

"I helped you too. You must have had an owner who created you or parents like you said once." Courage told. "Do you remember... anything about it?"

"Sadly no, it's been such a long time." Scarecrow looked down trying to remember how he was made and given life in the first place. "I don't know how old i am either." Bigfoot and Hunchback looked at him with concern too. "My family was bad enough to abandon me cause i couldn't scare anything..."

"And you thought being bad enough like them for people to fear you, would have been the solution." Courage reminded him about their first encounter.

"I was terribly wrong..." Scarecrow rested his head forward on his palm hands. He remembered nonetheless that crows were still is weakness of being chewed to pieces, despite being turned bad 'in a good way this time'. Courage felt the urge of apologizing to Scarecrow for calling out the crows back then to attack him but he decided not to.

"It's alright..." The dog added. "You don't have to tell more. Only matters now is how much we can survive through this." Courage's eyes were darken. "Yet, you still have that overprotective instinct of yours!" the dog smiled and gave his friend some heads up. "And Muriel was right. Your time of 'scaring' bad guys away from us has already arrived." Even though Courage knew that Scarecrow went too far of punching the dog and Eustace out of the farmhouse to protect Muriel, the dog still accepts him with the fact, that he still lives to his full potential and trust.

"Really?" Scarecrow raised his head up glancing at Courage.

"For sure! We are all here right? Still alive and unharmed, thanks to you!" the dog cheered him up.

"Thank you, Courage." He smiled and felt honored for once. Bigfoot and Hunchback glanced at each other happily.

"How emotional, and pathetic." Dashboard Computer told. The others except for Shirley, gave him a frown look.

"Wait..." Courage turned his head looking at their vehicle calling out his Computer."How come you can still talk? Your engine is stopped."

"Twit, i told you that i have unlimited battery juice thanks to my circuits connected to it. When i run out of gas, then i'll be shut down and i cannot talk. But i can hear everything instead. Don't tell me your organic brain has melt down after the disaster too. " Computer told as he turned on and off the only van's headlight for demonstration.

"Oh... well, how do you feel being a vehicle than a computer for a change?" The dog asked knowing his sarcastic friend didn't seem to like his new life on 4 wheels.

"Beside the horrible taste of fuel running through my circuits, even if it feels quite energizing which i admit it that is a new sensation i never felt before, it's a miracle that my main processor wasn't reduced to rumble by the sheer collisions made during the journey. How did that hay-made humanoid incorporated me into the farmer's truck is beyond my knowledge. Personally i would have returned inside my own computer body if it was still intact. At least i no longer have to live in that boring attic for years straight."

"Hehe, hey at least instead of a keyboard, you got yourself some radio tuning keys." Courage giggled. 'If music still exists around that is..' He thought with his eyes hooded.

"Very funny. We're in the middle of nowhere pretty much destroyed and the only thing i would hardly believe is music still being a thing existing." Computer told. "I suppose you have a good plan once we reach our final destination considering that almost everything is now dead?"

Courage's mind certainly went to the fact that he wants to recover the only family pictures Mad Dog stole to mock Courage, but true to its nature of not relying on violence even though he is affected with a plague of fury, and the disaster depression, he was unsure how to defeat the wardog lord. His friends knew what to do already, they were going to recover their own stolen goods too and liberate the wasteland of enemies for poor survivors to live in peace.

But a plan was required. They also had the warcats on their tail, but the brigade never came in contact with Katz yet. The wardog lord and the red feline both plagued Courage's thoughts. Since the insects he had met so far were very iconic to Katz, confirms that the feline is still alive, and having a bunch of warcats following his leadership couldn't get any much worse. The brigade has to face two different types of enemies, and this will surely slow down their quest.

"Uhh... Dog?" Hunchback called him out of thoughts.

"Oh. Uh I don't know..." Courage scratches his head. "Let's just focus now on our dinner." he left a bit of hunger drool. "I don't wanna think of anything for a while. I'm... I'm too scared of what Mad Dog might do to me or how am i going to deal with him. I might lose it again..." He whimpered.

"Courage... you're not... alone." Hunchback told despite the fact he hasn't seen Courage's beast mode in action. And Bigfoot pats the dog's head.

"We'll claim back what is ours." Scarecrow added. "And this troublesome dog will regret it."

"And hopefully i won't be reduced into a tricycle, considering that it's a long way to go, given by your inexplicably determination and coordinates." Computer said.

"What did that... monster took away... from you?" Hunchback asked.

Courage ultimately stands up looking at the fire with an expression on his face that almost made him cry. "Mad Dog has something... that belongs to me. Muriel and the farmer's wedding photo. And a picture of my parents..." The dog shed tears.

"Do they mean that very much to you? They're just some printed pictures after all." Dashboard Computer just made his most stupid mistake ever talking back to Courage.

"Just some pictures?" the dog gave the machine an annoying look "Computer, how could you be such a jerk?" He tries not to snap again.

"No hard feelings, kid. But i'm incapable of understanding such emotion towards mementoes that may still be or not intact."

"It is called a memento for a reason!" Courage growled. "I don't have anything else left from the farm besides you and the photo. Of course you cannot understand, cause you never had a family before!" The dog was about to snap again making his friends nervous.

"As if i would ever need one, how do we know if Mad Dog hasn't even turned them to shreds by now before we reach him?" Now the Computer gave Courage a negative thought enraging the dog more.

"COMPUTER!" He screamed while tearing down on his muzzle.

Shirley turns her head around from looking at the mountain, giving a death stare at the van in the distance after hearing Courage's screaming. Scarecrow wasn't taking any of it, he sits up and walks over towards the van frustrated, opens up the hood and...

"He-hey what, was it something i said-" Dashboard Computer gets shut down immediately.

... as Scarecrow takes out the battery leaving Computer's circuits hanging. He opens up the driver's door and throws the battery inside the cabin as he slams the door back and the hood down.

How could that machine ever say something like that since the family photos were the only things that kept Courage sane and happy, as they were the only things ever to be witnessed, after the disaster?

"Oooooh..." Courage was trying to hold up his tears but he felt on the edge seeing his computer being disconnected forcefully due to his attitude.

"There, there, Courage calm down." Scarecrow came back patting the dog too while Bigfoot growled looking at the van. Hunchback shook his head and Courage was almost beginning to cry more instead, replacing the rage that was forming.

"That blabbermouth never knows when to shut up. Let's hope none of that has happened." Scarecrow told as he sits back down angered at the campfire. Shirley's expression returned back to normal, she turns her head around again.

Courage was wiping out his tears until Hunchback added: "If that machine... was a living being... he would've knew... how does it feel... of losing... someone you loved the most." That statement made Bigfoot nodding in agreement while looking at Courage with concern. The pink dog lays down on the wreckage next to Bigfoot looking at the fire again.

"So you two met this troublesome dog in a prison? That freak did this to you?" Scarecrow was trying to understand better Courage's eye scar and Hunchback's little story before they met Scarecrow.

"Well..." Courage sat up back slowly. "It wasn't actually a prison at all but it sure resembled like one." He was beginning to regain back his fearful thoughts "And no, this was from a wardog's claw when i tried to find Muriel and the farmer... After what Mad Dog told me about his setup..." and the dog tries to take a deep breath not to get mad on what he was about to say "...and tortured me, his other dogs threw me in a cold cell and that's where i met him." He points out to Hunchback as the old man nods.

Bigfoot was all eyes and ears listening. Shirley barely even listens from the distance, but it was so quiet she had no problem going along with the story.

"I got captured... when i tried to... reach for the church..." Hunchback told. But that left everyone including Courage all perked up. "They dragged me inside and... i rested a few days before... i met this little dog again. They... never questioned me anything."

"A church?" Courage raised an eyebrow. "We never had one in Nowhere before." He was scratching his chin. Bigfoot and Scarecrow looked at each other confused.

"Wrong..." Hunchback replied. "It existed once... before it has been abandoned... and i always worked there... good people came to pray... doing weddings... funerals... and my job was to ring the tower bell... on each occasion. I had no... other home, than the old church tower..." Hunchback looked down in sadness remembering his past.

"Oooohh." Courage tries to show sympathy for the old man. "What happened then?"

"Creepy things happened in Nowhere lately..." The old man told giving Courage an approval nod. "Everyone were now... scared to visit... leaving me all alone in the holy church... until it became vandalized and ruined... and the Mayor decided to... destroy it many years ago..." Hunchback was looking at his only bell left hanging by his cane.

"I took away all the bells... before they were... bringing my home down. And i ran away..."

Courage, Bigfoot and Scarecrow had their jaws dropped without words until Courage shook his head and asked him, "But, how did you survive the meteor strike then?"

Hunchback giggled, and replied, "Under the bell." He waved his arms in the form of a giant bell. Then Courage with his eyes widen, remembered the old man also owned a giant bell bigger than himself and the dog, when Hunchback left the farm. For protection, but with a force such as the meteor shock wave, it pretty much destroyed it. At least it saved Hunchback's life.

So Hunchback was once a church bell ringer for Nowhere's special occasions each time people came to pray or organize events during his youth. Without any business and his only home got ruined even before the apocalypse, he became a hobo while his passion for playing with bells remained forever. It must have been so hard for the old man to go through this all by himself. But now everything is destroyed, how could the church still be intact after the disaster?

"Wow, and the acrobatic skills?" Courage was eager to hear more while his friends were almost finished with cooking the lizard meat.

"Somebody had to... maintain the tower... and the church. The place was so big... with lots of chains... painted walls... and ladders... Everything had to be done... fast before starting each event. It's how i taught myself... " Hunchback started coughing and clears his throat after too much talking.

"And nobody ever witnessed your work?" Courage wanted to make the situation clear. Hunchback shook his head meaning he wasn't given much credit for all of his work, all he ever wished was his precious bells having with him all the time, as a reminder of his well spent youth.

"Okay Courage, let's leave our old friend regaining back his breath." Scarecrow said and smiled while looking at the dog nodding. Courage apologized, "I'm sorry i made you talk a lot, i hope you don't mind showing us where this church was at least?"

Hunchback waved his arms showing that it was no problem, then he grabbed his bell cane and aimed it towards Mount Nowhere. Courage and his friends looked at the sight of it and it surely was reduced to rumble and height as well. The dog couldn't help but remember how he used to go there in order to find a spring for Muriel's back pain... and the goat guardian. Perhaps Courage didn't explored the whole place entirely back then, believing nothing else could have existed.

After a few coughes, Hunchback gained back his own will to talk, but he got interrupted by Bigfoot, starting to talk gibberish language again. He puts his little arms in form of horns on his head giving a vicious look on his face. Courage tries to understand him.

"Huh?" What are you trying to say?" The dog's eyes are widen seeing the big guy acting like a goat.

Courage then figured it out. Bigfoot must have met the last goat guardian of the spring asking, "You, you knew that white goat too?" in which Bigfoot nodded lowering his hands with a smile on his face.

"Just how far have you been running away from your home?" Courage shook his head while he chuckled.

"Dinner's ready." Scarecrow finished cooking the lizard. Everyone except for himself, Computer and Shirley, were famished.

Just a few minutes later as Courage, Hunchback and Bigfoot were eating, Scarecrow went back to the van and reinserted the battery back under the hood, reawakening Computer once more. The pink dog certainly liked a bit of peace in his mind for once without further arguments with the machine, but after a while it felt so quiet even more, so he told Scarecrow to switch him back on.

Courage was about to have again an argument nonetheless with Computer from that little setback about pictures, but the machine knows his ways when to limit himself from wasting too much energy therefor he goes to idle mode whenever he needs to 'rest' from all that talking. Scarecrow and Shirley on the other hand, had the urge of scolding the machine for his attitude but they didn't, knowing from Courage, that's how he was programmed.

Dashboard Computer quoted after he was switched back on by Scarecrow, "I suppose i deserved that?" making the hay soldier not amused. He didn't said a word as he removed his red boxing gloves, checking his hay-made hands from all those punches made by now. Computer then decided to go idle mode, not buying his ignorance.

Meanwhile, the taste of lizard meat was, even though unbelievable, quite acceptable. Not very tasty but every bit of decent food was crucial for survival. Bigfoot seemed to like it the most, while the old man and Courage ate it slowly due to their conditions. The dog's stomach had issues and Hunchback for being old and slow eater.

It was almost midnight now. Scarecrow was sitting on top of the van guarding the brigade as they were getting ready for sleep. They had to prepare themselves for their last location before leaving Nowhere Ruins. The campfire was still going, as we now see Shirley sitting next to it warming herself alone. She didn't ate, nor talked with her friends, for good minutes long which it was downright strange.

Courage went out of the van to put out the fire, but he sees the medium still standing there so the dog decides to leave it. Courage hesitated at first to ask Shirley about her mood, instead he pulled out some dinner leftovers in case she felt hungry again.

"Hey, aren't you hungry?" He asked while holding the leftovers to her.

"No, i'm good." Shirley was still staring at the firepit. Her expression remained similar of a person who hasn't slept in ages, without food.

"But you look so tired and you must eat something!" Courage insisted.

"Dog, please. Get that thing. Away from me." Her eyes glanced angrily then at Courage's plate of lizard meat as she talked with an annoyed tone.

Courage gulped and shivered in fear believing Shirley doesn't like that at all, so he puts it away. He came up with an alternative choice, cheering her up possibly.

"O-Okay, h-how about some of this?" he reached for the can of dog food and puts it beside her.

She looks at it a few seconds and this time the medium tries to show him some kindness. Shirley grabs it, and with single paw nail acting like a can opener, she opens it but chews the food very slowly. Courage tries to see what's wrong with her all of a sudden.

"Is everything... alright?" he asks.

She didn't replied, although Shirley was on the urge of telling Courage the truth about his condition, beside the only theory the pink dog could swallow. As much as she never liked to lie, it was better off sooner than later before anything could affect Courage more.

"Courage..." she spoke. "If i tell you something, will you promise not to scream?"

The pink hound was now confused but also nervous about what she was about to say, he nodded nonetheless keeping his promise. Shirley sighed, and began to talk.

"Remember when you were fighting that spider?"

"Y-yes..." Courage gulped. "But, then i don't know or how i woke up back in the van... you guys rescued me, right?" He placed his paws on his head figuring out what happened.

"Yes, and there's more. You almost took its life." Shirley puts down her can of food. "I tried to locate the source of your unstable raging state while you were passed out, and i am afraid that your condition is something that..." she sighes again "...no antidote on this charcoal of a planet can fix you."

Courage's heart was pounding very fast after hearing that it might not sound good, he then proceeds to ask Shirley more.

"What... what is it then? An infection? A disease? ... " the dog was shivering now his entire fur of fear.

"A demon." Shirley finally freaked out Courage as his eyes got widen and his jaw dropped.

The pink hound was struggling not to scream in hopes of not awakening his other friends already asleep except for Scarecrow, but he didn't seem to listen to Shirley and Courage's conversation, and Computer was in idle mode still. The machine knew already.

"Why... Why is this all happening to me?" Courage began to cry instead. "Can't i get rid of this 'demon' somehow?!" his tears were all over his eyes while he grabbed his ears in despair.

"Courage, I am sorry but this is a natural cause. You haven't got bitten, infected or injured much worse than you are." Shirley tries to calm him down. "We all are born with different types of emotions that could get out of control once in a while. Even myself, but i had nothing left to desire more besides helping people with being stupid or cursing them."

"B-b-but... what about me? What is wrong with me?! Did i even hurt any of you while i had this demon within me? Is this thing going to put me down? Please!" The dog begged for an accurate answer, forcing the medium to sit up and reaches for Courage to slap some sense into his muzzle. Courage shouldn't rely on depressive thoughts all of a sudden since he was the one after all who has united his friends. The pink hound was bracing himself for that and...

**_SLAP!_**

"Keep it together, dog! You are not going to die already!" Shirley snapped. Then she realized what she has done after seeing him rubbing his cheek in pain and shedding tears.

"Courage... I... I am... " her eyes got widen without words. "I am so sorry..." she drooped her ears and paw she slapped with, and her expression faded from anger to sheer sadness. She turns around not looking at Courage as she felt guilt for that.

"Shirley... I'm the one who should be sorry. I think we're all gone crazy. That makes us even." he patted her back slowly. "If it's true what you said, i'll try and... do my best to control it." The dog then looks up at Scarecrow, he was watching them for a few seconds then looks at the other way around. His expression hasn't changed in a bit.

It was only natural that the past events since the apocalypse has affected even the entire brigade physically making each character doing some unusual things they aren't commonly seen to do. The gypsy never thought she would slap some sense into Courage while he's also affected by his own self-emotions gone awry. Then again the pink hound tries to compensate towards the medium, to show he is not going to give up that easily.

"Thank you for telling me now than never... It could've been worse if i didn't knew in the wrong place in a wrong time.. I... I needed that."

Shirley turns her head slightly to peek him from under her blue hood and began to talk again softly this time, but without control on her speech since she was surprised his rage hasn't been triggered from that slap.

"Dog... this demon.. is a part of your soul formed up from too many shattered emotions after losing what you loved the most... Your Muriel and the stupid one are dead... what else have you lost?"

"My parents... My yo-yo... and now i'm scared of losing you guys too." The dog told. "You're the only 'family' i have left on this world..." His scarred eye hardly even shed a tear since it was damaged.

"Courage... i hope you understand that _all things end_ just like it did on this world, for some of us who survived, our time will come too one way or another..." Shirley looks down at the campfire about to extinguish, describing exactly what she was about to say. "We are not going to live forever."

"It was you, who brought us hope on this burnt out rock, you may not admit it, but we wouldn't be united again without your courageous deed, dog." she continued.

Courage felt relieved now after what she said even though his cheek still hurts a bit, but he was still feeling bad for going out of control like that early despite his condition. He smiled at least.

"I suppose. How did i even went back to normal? I thought for sure i would never control my own fury once i become... a monster." He asked in fear.

"It is what i thought too." She told. "My only guess, is your memories."

"Huh?" Courage was confused.

"You absolutely don't remember anything once fury takes control over you, until something from your past memories is triggered at the same time within present time."

"Sort of like... Deja-vu?"

"Eerr.. something like that, yes."

"It was Muriel! I heard her for sure in my dream before anything of that happened! Then i heard her again, i don't know when but it's like she's still with me!" Courage perked up now knowing what's going on with him. "But you lost a lot of things too, Shirley. Why aren't you or the other folks affected like me?"

"We are all different like i said." she sighed and closed her eyes. "Look dog, i better go sleep now, we can talk about it again next time. Good night..." Shirley sits up and goes inside the van leaving Courage alone, since she was very tired to continue on. The dog was now left in thoughts memorizing everything the medium said.

The campfire went out and cold night air started to take effect. Scarecrow went inside now the van's cabin still not sleeping. Computer suddenly spoke to Courage before the dog was about to head inside to sleep.

"Dog?" The machine called out.

"Yes, Computer?" Courage turns his head around facing the van's front side.

Courage was expecting an endless argument between him and the Computer since he was forcefully shut down by Scarecrow, however surprisingly that moment never came as he simply said, "Good night... and be careful."

The dog never could believe that Computer would still care about him despite his attitude, either because the machine had enough for today or he heard everything from Shirley before he goes back to idle mode. Courage couldn't help but smile and replied too.

"Good night too, Computer." he finally reached inside.

Inside the van, Bigfoot and Shirley fell asleep already. Hunchback on the other hand waited for Courage to get inside, still awake.

"I thought you would be the first person to sleep." Courage told the old man.

"Hehehe..." he giggled. "I'm not that... very weak." he lays himself down on the mattress. They both whispered a little chit-chat not waking up the others, before they both fall asleep too.

"Hey, do you think... this church is still intact? Maybe we'll run into it tomorrow and I'd like to visit it." Courage felt excited as he leans down on his mattress too.

"Yes" the old man nodded. "And it's not vacant either..." He remembered that's where he got captured by wardogs then moved into that prison. Courage's excitement lowered down when his expression turned to worries and fear. He shook his head considering it was to be expected.

Finally they both fell asleep. The courageous brigade spent the rest of the night hidden themselves behind the boulder, far away from any roads they would believe that any enemy may pass by and expose them. Their last destination before leaving Nowhere Ruins was obviously Mount Nowhere and with that occasion they will visit Hunchback's long lost church claimed as his home. In any worse scenario it would look definitely in ruins as well.

Hopefully the wardogs have left that place since their encounter with Hunchback, but the brigade has their own doubts. Even when the mountain seems to be heavily affected as well by the meteor impact, the endless smoke emanating from atop of the mountain could mean that its still occupied, or it has turned more likely into a volcano. All these theories remained unconfirmed. Until their next adventure awaiting.

* * *

**_No enemy camps have been captured or destroyed during this chapter._**

**_[Nowhere Ruins]_**

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point) - (Katz's Control = Zero)_

* * *

...

**_Katzville _**

_(formerly known as Nashville) located between Kansas and Washington._

_..._

We now see a new city built out of tons of scrap laid upon already crumbled down buildings and skyscrapers. Trees were already covered with warcats, the black shattered windows from each building seen on the horizon of Katzville were lit up by the Sun's reflection. And the unending purring sound made the entire land recognizable for cats.

"Boss, we lost him..." one of warcats told to Katz.

"Lost who?" The red feline asked.

"The pink mutt." warcat shivered in fear.

"I thought i told you idiots, not to do any harm to Courage. Didn't i made myself clear?" he finally stood out of darkness.

Katz was shown covered with bandages around his lower torso, wearing a white headband covering his injures, and also holding a backpack on his back. His left arm was replaced by a robotic one with razor-sharp claws that could pierce through metal and flesh. His yellow eyes were menacing as ever.

"Just what happened back in Nowhere?" The red cat asked.

"Me and another guy, we were resting in our bunker below the diner, until we heard the entrance gate noise. It was there, the dog you told us about. We didn't knew he would come, and our spider pet went after him quickly..."

"You let one of my precious loves... LOOSE UPON COURAGE?!" Katz was ready to shred the neck of his loyal warcat in fury.

"P-please! Let me explain! The dog was a monster! We barely went out ourselves alive!"

"...A monster...? How is that?" Katz began to lower his anger.

"It was little.. pink.. killing machine... We then chased after him once they left. My buddy didn't make it. And i thought we could bring him to you, if you wanted him so much. But- but- but-.."

"Interesting... But what?"

"The minefield, was cleared out." The warcat finished reporting the casualties.

"I don't care about it! And since you, my fellow followers, are all eager to hear my plan..." Katz was surrounded by the crowd of warcats all ears and purring for they were eager to hear their next move.

"...All i want is, for Courage to clear out Mad Dog's dirt, then we can overtake the land for us. We won't have to deal with any wardogs. No bloodbath would be necessarily once Mad Dog will be defeated..."

The warcat was now stunned hearing Katz's real plan. "...For those of you still wandering the wasteland, you can eliminate his friends instead. Once the dog has defeated our arch-enemy, i will personally deal with Courage after i truly thank him for his 'heroic deed'..." he snapped his metallic claws.

"You know, boss, i don't think he can free the land all by himself..."

"One more reason, to make him suffering a lot once his friends are dealt with. And if you truly say that he is a monster, i will look after him myself as well to confirm your theory." Then Katz's attention was moved towards his garage.

Suddenly two huge double-gates opened up by the warcats. Lights lit up Katz's personal garage revealing his own personal vehicle.

Rumors were true in fact, the giant mechanical legs out of Dr Zalost 's Tower Ruins were placed as wheels for Katz's spider-like car. The rear vehicle was replaced with a half-looking submarine acting as the spider's abdomen, while a pair of two car front-sides worked as the driver's cabin. On top of the abomination machine was his own personal throne made out of different scrap. Each side of the throne were different panels with levers and pedals.

"Lovely isn't it?" Katz admired his creation with his warcats's help.

The warcat who evaded, had his jaw long dropped before the gates opened.

"I'll be on my way now." Katz climbed up on his vehicle about to drive off.

"Where are you going?"

"I will not sit around while Mad Dog might plan any schemes on exterminating us. I must check out my land once in a while. And if i ever spot a wardog on my way..." he pulled a lever rising a huge mechanical spider leg up and then impales the ground with it, perking up all the warcats they were standing next to him. The ground was shaking for a few seconds. "...the result will not be so pleasing." Katz told his final speech before heading downtown.

* * *

**THE END of Chapter 4.**


	5. Keep Your Family And Friends Close

**TCB: Chapter 5: Keep Your Family And Friends Close**

* * *

**_[Nowhere Ruins]_**

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point) - (Katz's Control = Zero)_

* * *

Another day was about to start upon the affected planet Earth, while its sun rays are always blocked by the unending smoke clouds covering the planet skies. Not even the gloomy charm of the post-apocalyptic morning seemed to change the mood of its remaining survivors still wandering the wasteland. Each day was a challenge, and everyone had to be prepared, including the Courageous Brigade.

Somewhere near Mount Nowhere, we see the brigade's van still parked and left intact from their little barbeque night. Courage woke up way too early yawning and rubbing his eyes as he stretches his back, even though he wished to sleep more, the thoughts of heading down the road again or never-ending nightmares, made him unable to fall asleep again inside the van. Just thinking about his past and what twisted future awaits him, it gave the dog more reason to wake up.

Scratching his fur, the dog sits up seeing his friends still asleep, and while he does that, he hears the sound of metal clang noise coming from the van's cabin. Fortunately, it wasn't that loud enough to disturb them. Courage gets up and sneaks in tip toes past Bigfoot, Shirley and Hunchback straight towards the rear van's curtain. He pops his head out and looks around the corner for that ongoing noise. It was Scarecrow checking the engine but he was too focused on repairs to notice Courage who came to see him.

The pink dog decides not to disturb him and hops in the driver's seat with hopes of speaking to his only family member left out of the farmhouse, the Computer. Just like good old times. Back then, Courage used to switch him on and off but this time it wasn't necessarily doing so, since Computer on the dashboard reacts instantly by whoever is on the wheel or by his surroundings.

"Hey." the dog watches the little green Computer screen on the dashboard.

"Oh, let me guess... Nightmares or sickness again?" the machine spoke after seeing Courage on the wheel.

"Uhmm Computer..." Courage felt like talking with his friend in private, away from everyone else but with Scarecrow working on the vehicle, it was hard to know if the hay-made soldier was listening too. "What is he doing?"

"At the moment your friend is inspecting and repairing the farmer's truck, the transmission and oil pump was damaged a bit while some parts are rusty unable to perform-"

"It's not the farmer's truck anymore... You are now a van." The dog corrected him while his expression felt worried.

"What is it then, dog?" Computer asked mildly annoyed.

"I... I wanted to say.. i'm so sorry about what Scarecrow did to you... I know it's hard for you to understand my feelings... but let's not jump straight into assuming the worse." Courage spoke.

"Here we go again about those pictures, isn't it? Fine, dog. But don't come here crying to me if it happens otherwise. Or we'll just travel in vain."

"We're not going out there in vain!" The dog yelped. "You think we all like to live under martial law by Mad Dog?"

"I see no point in establishing a peaceful world again, when it is all nothing but junk, rotten bodies, torn down locations and barely walking survivors just waiting to be finished off. Mad Dog's tyranny is merely resembling a puppet government attempting to win but fails miserably in restoring peace." The machine told.

The dog blinked turning his expression to frown. "I think you may have blown up a gasket. That monster will only bring us fear and pain. He won't let us live in peace... ever."

"As far as you told me, he's looking for a rabbit girl, isn't it? Wouldn't this girl prefer freedom instead of oppression once she is in Mad Dog's grasp?" Computer asked.

"Believe me, she'll be killed if she dares to oppose."

"I don't understand. He loves her but at the same time he will kill her? What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Mad Dog only loves Bunny when she obeys his rullership and Bunny obviously doesn't like him because he separated her from being with Kitty." Courage explained.

"And what can we do about that?"

Courage sighed, "...I don't know, i can only hope she's okay and reunited with Kitty again."

"Who is Kitty?" The machine asked.

"Ermm, it's a long story. Guess i forgot to tell you that day the whole thing." Courage told as he leaned his head up against the door window gazing Town of Nowhere in rubble, while the mountain was pretty near from the brigade's position.

"Twit, like always. I suppose i have nothing to argue about it, if you like to share some intel about your little related skirmish."

The pink dog sighed again, "I shouldn't talk long enough with you to waste up your energy."

"May i have to remind you that you're the one... *buzzz* ..."

The dog's expression perked up when Computer on the dashboard seems to caught up some bits of lag during the conversation.

"*zzz*... who wanted me to... *zzzzz*" Apparently Computer couldn't finish his argument sentence and it was replaced with sounds of a broken TV signal.

"Computer?... Computer! Answer me!" Courage jumped in shock, starting to press on all dashboard buttons attempting to see what was wrong with his friend. The dog not only smashed all the dashboard keys but gave up thinking he was done for. That is until Scarecrow waved his hand holding his wrench, letting Courage know that he was working on it.

Finally he fixed back Computer's processor and gave him back the ability to speak. This time Computer didn't bother to finish his last sentence, but Courage felt relieved now. The machine actually meant the dog being the first one who started up the conversation.

"Ugh, i hate this new "body"... Then again it doesn't look like i have much of a choice either." Says the machine.

"Oh, thank goodness..." Courage was pleased. "So, i met Kitty when she was dressed herself in a white coat wearing a mask... and began to beat me to death cause she thought every dog is evil... Her friend Bunny was kidnapped by Mad Dog on the The Wrong Side of The Tracks-" then he got interrupted.

"Wait, were you indeed evil before? And didn't we went already out there when we stopped by the oil refinery a while ago? How come your friends haven't found her still when you evaded out of the prison?" Computer inquired.

"I was never evil! Bunny was long gone before all of this happened. I couldn't find her even when i was captured."

"Go on, dog. "

"I thought i'd never find her after i snatched Kitty's mouse toy engraved with Bunny's signature, until Mister Mouse pointed me about Mad Dog's apartment. That's where I finally found her and rescued her then Mad Dog tried to ran her over with his car."

"And you were fast enough to outrun a vehicle?" Computer asked.

"If only you knew how painful was for me to keep up at that speed." the dog whimpered. "Then i took his wheel and drove it right into a train. I escaped then... boom. Mad Dog was done for until now."

"How come Mad Dog is still alive after that tremendous collision, nobody would have survived a train crash." the machine told.

"It was none of my business anymore when Bunny and Kitty were united back then."

"And yet that troublesome dog made it through the apocalypse as well. Your history related with Mad Dog repeats again. Still that doesn't explain how come he woke up first then you. What if you were the one who survived first?"

"I don't know... I just wish none of this happened.." Courage told. "And i don't think we can travel back in time either."

"Even if you did, you would have prevented the meteor strike otherwise?"

"..." Courage was left without words about that. There was no way in hell the dog would have destroyed a gigantic space rock which manipulated the planet. Yet he was thankful at least the Earth hasn't been reduced to rubble, destroying it completely. He shook his head from that thought and returns to his main objective.

"I must go after Bunny.. or Kitty.. wherever they are! I can't let them fall by the paws of that monster." Courage said with a determined tone.

"Kid, i'm sorry if i am bursting your bubble, but i thought your pictures were your main priority to recover. Which is it, recover the pictures, find Bunny and Kitty or, annihilating Mad Dog?" Computer asked the options.

"All of them..." The dog told. Even though the 'annihilation' word seemed to be too much for Courage.

"You really want to make this the hard way like always, don't you? And here i thought your condition would change you, if not even in the slightest matter. I mean how would your other friends feel overtime when this never-ending journey seems to be just an ordinary courageous deed of yours, like in your previous adventures?"

"It's up to them." The dog told. "Are you so worried we'll never make it?"

"I am in a vehicle body, driving and carrying you twits miles by miles while sooner or later i may indeed blow a gasket if i am not maintained properly, from several attacks damaging the vehicle integrity." The machine said.

"Computer.. i need you. I need them too. You wouldn't let me all alone here.. dying in this horrible desert ?" Courage said it with a sad tone.

"Sounds like the same term of using me on purpose to survive, doesn't it?"

"NO!" Courage yelled and shook his head like a lightning.

"I knew it. If it wasn't for me, you have already been taken care of in the farmhouse whenever you had monsters or catastrophes shoved upon your fur."

"Computer, please!" Courage was starting to feel unusual like his rage was about to form up, besides the fact that he does NOT use his friends to his needs at all as Computer thinks. "It's not like that... please don't make me lose it!" He was desperately trying to not let his rage out again.

"Give me a reason why should i even help you anymore on a journey with a possible tragic end."

"You're my friend... my family... We all are!" The dog was breathing uncontrollably through speeches. "I never used you selfishly... I am not going to hurt you or leave you! ... Don't you need me too?" His eyes were about to emerge in a red color looking. He continued on anyhow:

"If i'm not going to make it... so be it. You can hurt me as much as you want, in case i'm losing control of myself..." Courage actually meant it with full honesty and no sweat, even though he was unaware that his sharp claws were being already unleashed.

"Oh dear, i guess i can't do much of my own either, not in this condition or on this deserted planet. I don't expect more or less from you, other than seeing your accomplishments fulfilled."

Courage again shook his head fast while clenching his teeth trying to calm down, as it felt like his inner demon too doesn't seem to like Computer's attitude. Finally he did while sweating and panting. His red eyes went to normal still having the blurry look on Courage's end.

"I'll never abandon you.. and others. I care about my friends!... I'll be always be here when you need me.." The dog placed his paws on the dashboard looking with determination on Computer's little green screen near the steering wheel, still panting.

The smell of tea filled the air from inside the van, as we see Shirley was brewing some tea to pour in their cups scavenged a while ago and Courage could sense it. The dog was happy smelling something familiar for a change which it reminds him of Muriel. He felt really calm now and continued on asking his machine:

"Computer, can i ask you... how come am i still alive... after two years since we passed out?" Courage remembered his timeout recorded before the refinery attack.

"I don't know, i honestly thought you would be turned into ashes by now, or perhaps you were already awaken long before reawakening me?"

"No, we both came back alive at the same time, same day." Courage spoke.

"Strange. Or maybe this so called 'demon' of yours spoken by that gypsy dog is preventing you from becoming putrid."

"Don't even remind me of that, please... I never trust it!" The dog shook his head trying not to include his broken emotions into vitality theory.

Outside, Scarecrow took a peek from his repairs to look out on Courage, then he looked away towards the mountain telling to himself in mind, 'I must hurry.', he felt that a sandstorm was about to form up around the base of the mountain. Scarecrow's best option for the brigade was to pass the mountain before the storm may blind them or hit them by lightnings.

These sandstorms occurred frequently after the apocalypse, they were not just only ordinary sand blizzards formed by strong wind. But within these sand clouds during the storm, it is wise to take shelter or run as fast as you can before being struck by lightning or taken off the ground straight up in the air like the force of a tornado. Yet it became a heavy chore for Scarecrow to maintain the Computer van with outdated parts without having much time. And they were running out of resources again.

Back to Courage, the dog felt like asking again about Computer's condition since they couldn't have a proper discussion last night.

"Why would you ask me that again since you know already our situation by now?" the machine asked.

"It's a way of checking ourselves once in a while, alright? I tried talking with you nicely yesterday but you made it harder for me to go on." Courage tried his best to have a chilled conversation but Computer always seems to get straight to the point of arguing sometimes making it difficult for the dog.

"If that is the case, i would say annoyed. Half of myself is very glad that i no longer am living in the attic waiting to be switched on by a twit like yourself on a regular basis, even though the world is collapsed now, i wished to explore more than what i have accessed on internet pages already before all of this happened. Unfortunately there is nothing left but danger crawling around in every direction we go. And that is my other half i strongly disagree about this new experience with death marching straight to us. Since the farmhouse was destroyed along with my body, i don't seem to have a choice but to remain within this vehicle body. I highly doubt there may be other computers." Computer told.

"Yeah. We surely going to miss our home..." Courage spoke while he knew they were about to leave Nowhere Ruins but felt like he would want to return back. "I can only hope we'll repair the house once this is all over..." his eyes were hooded.

"It is already over, dog. All the resources you have found and your friends too left from the farm are used in building this rustbucket on wheels. Chances of finding more resources are very low but with higher risk of running into enemies we surely don't wish to borrow stuff from." Computer said so.

"I... I still miss them..." The dog tells about Muriel and Eustace. "And i still feel like it's my own fault... i... i failed... to protect them..."

"Your fault? You didn't fried Earth resulting their death."

"No, i should have woke up when i had the chance! Yet i was knocked out longer without my will... i couldn't check out on you... or them after we were blown right away." Courage whimpered placing a paw on his forehead leaning on dashboard.

"So that explains why you 'overslept' past your school time." Computer joked while Courage was having none of it. "You may not have rescued my body, but having rescued the processor at least makes me think of you otherwise. That are you are less of a twit than i expected you to be. I honestly thought i would be finished for good, despite a little dust covering up my pins and damage cuts, who knew i would be still functioning after a tremendous planetary collision?"

"What do you mean?" Courage asked.

"I mean that you saved me at least. That hay-made soldier could have snapped me in half by a mere accident when he plugged me in the vehicle."

"He knows how to handle a combine harvester don't worry, that makes him a great mechanic beside scaring off things." The dog described Scarecrow.

"And he has yet to know how to handle computers... Those pictures you mentioned- " Dashboard Computer told.

"No, please. Don't make me think of something worse happening to them." Courage begged.

"Hold your fur, twit. Do you really pay attention more to them rather than us?"

By the sound of that question which Computer asked, it made Courage's eyes now focused on its green screen with a very honest perspective by the dog. He then looked at Scarecrow almost finishing with the repairs and hears movement from within the van. His other allies woke up as well. As much as he loved his owners, Courage couldn't rely too much on mementoes unknown if they are still intact or not. In which Courage has finally found his tiny bit of sanity left. He quote:

"Muriel... the farmer... and my parents... they'll always be with me in my heart." the dog shed a tear and sniffs. "You don't know.. how am i thankful to have you guys around... still living with me."

"Oh, looks like the apocalypse hasn't mowed you down completely." Computer noticed.

"It did. I've been in worse scenarios before, but this..." Courage crossed his arms leaning on the driver seat.

"It's not like you'd consider this your very worst case scenario ever happened. You always come up with a plan after i give you all the intel i could find about incidents. This time, it is out of my reach. No internet, no cable, and there's barely even signal around. Still i am surprised the GPS system hasn't led us to our immediate death or making us getting lost, even though the signal is very weak." Computer explained.

Courage didn't replied, Scarecrow gets up looking at the dog and gives him a smile while waving his wrench, and continues on working on the engine. Courage waved too, then Computer proceeds to inform the dog about his maintenance ongoing that Scarecrow noticed while checking the engine. The dashboard screen begins to show off writing cuts or going in splitscreen as if it shows signs of lag. Courage noticed it too with his eyes widen.

"Computer? What's wrong?"

"Dog, when was the last time Eustace ever checked on the engine?" Computer asked.

"I don't know.. ?" Courage raised an eyebrow.

"You are so lucky your friend here knows how to buy some extra time before all of the pieces fall apart. It requires a whole new set of engine parts, cause the farmer apparently never bothered to replace the broken parts such as oil pumps, spark plugs, radiator circuits and so on." the machine replied.

"You mean, you are outdated?" the dog said. "Can't expect more from the farmer. And Scarecrow has done his best repairing with all the parts we could find."

"Continuing on in this condition will more likely reduce my power very fast, and will surely mean our end of the road, if you cannot find some good engine pieces to restore. And i barely keeping myself online due to power instability connected from my processor. There are several damaged vehicles all over these parts of the wasteland and not even their 'outdated' parts can make our van run far better than anticipated." Computer explained making the dog now even more worried than ever.

"Just... just keep holding up. For a little while longer." Courage assured him even though he was unsure how he was going to solve this problem. "We'll get you some new parts, if this is your way now of saying 'updating your software'." Courage joked back for revenge.

Courage now leaned down on the driver's seat looking at Scarecrow almost finishing repairing the engine damage during the last few road chases. The dog had the urge of helping him but he wasn't a very good mechanic. Computer spoke again:

"Look Courage, you may have all your reasons to be sad or upset, but the death of your owners certainly wasn't by your own paws. Even if you were capable of saving them before the impact, you couldn't punch the meteor straight back away into orbit. You're not a super twit dog."

Courage sighed, even though he hates to admit it but Computer had a point, that nobody in the world, even the dog would've had inhuman strength and will to prevent an incoming gigantic space rock from knocking Earth to its knees. The pink hound sits up attempting to not get all depressed even more than he is, while his fear of unleashing the beast himself from within never seems to end.

Scarecrow closed the hood down which is a sign that he gave the van engine some extra time to breathe before finding new car parts. He hides his wrench along with other tools scavenged and goes on his way towards the rear van. Courage stopped him asking, "Hey, is everything okay?"

"It'll last, for who knows how long." Scarecrow scratched his hair with his wrench, unsure how the engine may hold up.

Before they were heading down on the road again, Courage asks Computer one last request before everyone are setting up on the road once more.

"Hey, can you at least show on your map how much we drove so far?"

"But of course." Computer showed a distorted map of Nowhere Ruins on the screen. It showed all the roads and locations the brigade had stopped by.

At some point they were very, very far away from where Bagge Farm was. Town of Nowhere was no more, and the enemy camps were destroyed or liberated such as the oil refinery. The warcat diner was sealed and no more minefields seems to be found on the map. Rest of the well-known locations before the apocalypse were either vanished or barely seen due to loss of signal by Computer's attempts to refresh the system. Some small craters were also detected on the map along the way presuming those were from the meteor showers. Only one destination was yet to be reached before leaving their home land and that is Mount Nowhere.

Courage felt like he was seeing a map of another planet, not Earth at all. Scarecrow entered the van and noticed they were yet again very low on food, water and gas. The other allies woke up pretty hard after that cold rough night, that not even their own furnace filled with wood would have prevented the cold. However Bigfoot had no problem with it since he is adapted with almost all weather conditions. Talk about living in the wilderness.

Hunchback went out of van with a cup of tea in his hands going for Courage. He, and his friends had their tea already thanks to Shirley, the pink dog smiled seeing him giving some tea too.

"Gee, thanks!" Even though they were very low on resources, they decided not to hold up much longer than they should. The brigade of course would scavenge for more resources as progress further with the journey. Shirley's tea seems to be quite refreshing.

"You want some too?" Hunchback asked Scarecrow.

"No, thank you." he refused his tea. Hunchback was okay with that.

"I'll drive this time." Courage suggested after he finished drinking.

"You don't know what you're talking about, twit. Look at yourself, any chance we would end up into the first boulder or tree we seek?" Computer asked.

"If i wanna get myself better i must fight my own disease." The dog told. "I can't let this 'demon' control me." He said it with determination.

"I was afraid you might say that." The machine spoke with a very worried tone knowing his courageous attitude.

Scarecrow came to Courage asking "You sure you want to do this?" in which the dog replied with "Mhm. Arubububu." He wanted to speak in his dog gibberish language as a sign that he's ready for action. Surprisingly his own native language didn't died either.  
Scarecrow smiled and joined him as he sits beside Courage on the passenger seat. Hunchback hops back inside the vehicle. The dog starts the engine and the way they go.

Courage could feel the engine ongoing difference that Scarecrow tried to maintain, as they both were aware the van really needed new parts before it could die for good. Along with their friend Computer, without any good circuits connected to his processor, he is good as a rusty toaster. In the horizon they could see the ongoing sandstorm already engulfing the base of Mount Nowhere, but the brigade van ran with a moderate speed so far. Normally they would drive with extra caution thinking about fuel too, but in this case there was no time for sunday drive.

A fun fact, even though Courage is a small dog unable to reach the van's pedals, Computer helps him out pushing the pedals on its own indicating by the dog's foot. Back then when Courage was driving by his own, even though he was seen driving quite decently he was still struggling reaching for pedals. Scarecrow on the other hand, was showing no sign of emotions yet, feeling prepared for their next incoming destination of doom. The other allies were bracing themselves for their first storm encounter, even though the brigade have been through this a few times actually. This one was more aggressive, judging by the sand blizzard speed, lack of vision and furious sound of thunders with lightnings.

If they wanted to reach the mountain, they'll have to go full force on this one. The van disappeared within the sand clouds, it was barely noticed on the road even with a single headlight on.

"I'lll do it... i can do it... i must not be scared... or mad..." Courage thought in his mind.

* * *

**THE END of Chapter 5**

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_ Ok, i'm not gonna bother writing the territory point system outcome again at the end of each chapter, unless something really happened that needs to be updated for the next chapter.


	6. Fury Of The Storm

**TCB: Chapter 6: Fury Of The Storm**

* * *

_**[Nowhere Ruins]**_

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point - Katz's Control = Zero)_

* * *

The ongoing sandstorm which immediately sucked in the brigade's van, has left only horror and screams by Courage's friends and himself, as the never-ending fury of the weather likes to play with the vehicle like a toy by pushing it in all directions. Luckily Computer and Courage were able to maintain a straight line down the road if they wanted to escape out alive without being struck by lightnings. Scarecrow screeched his teeth holding up against the dashboard as hard as he could, with his bare hands without having his head knocked away by accident from all that turbulence.

Courage felt like he would want to scream by every lightning that has appeared around the van, but instead he stood focused on the road with his paws gripped to steering wheel. Every time the van began to slide slightly by the wind force, the dog pulled the wheel hard with Scarecrow's help to maintain stability. His pink fur was still ruffled and it looked like he haven't had a bath in ages, while his left eye scar was still itchy as ever. Inside the van Bigfoot and Hunchback were holding up close to each other in fear with their eyes widen by the sandstorm noise roaring like a beast, and Shirley was waiting desperately for this madness to end already while holding herself tight by the stove with her eyes closed.

"If i'm gonna be struck by lightning, you know what would happen." Computer quote.

Courage immediately remembered his past moment when Computer went nuts unleashing its mechanical claws after that event. And not a moment too soon...

_**BOOM!**_

A bolt of lightning did hit the hood of the van piercing through Computer's circuits. The pink dog finally screamed in horror by the sight of it and that startled Scarecrow. He immediately took the wheel while Courage jumped on his friend's head shaking his entire fur. The other allies jumped in shock as well by the lightning that hit the vehicle.

"You just had to open your mouth!" Scarecrow told angrily towards the machine.

"Ouch... Ow... Ah.. ahah.. ahahah..." Computer began to laugh like a maniac by the source of power that was granted by that bolt, the dashboard started to release sparks, yet no claws seemed to be unleashed this time. Instead, a blue aura was formed around the entire vehicle. Courage's friends remained confused by this change of interior color straight up blue. The pink dog however knew what was coming. Now with Computer in a vehicle body he would more likely...

"Oh no... No.. No!.. NO!" Courage shouted while grabbing his ears.

"Let's test out how much durability this vehicle provides against this storm. You twits gave me this body, i'll make sure i won't wreck it." Computer told. It immediately took control over the van. Scarecrow couldn't steer anymore the wheel as it was jammed and Courage jumped off his head sitting back on the passenger seat. They both braced themselves as well the other allies by Computer's wild driving attitude. Courage was the one being the most concerned about his friend.

A pair of little lightning bolts have formed up around the van's wheels, and without even thinking of further consequences like wasting gas, the machine went all full speed ahead through the storm. It even drove right through medium sized rocks or boulders that appeared in front of the road to avoid any more lightning strikes! Smashing all the things on its way into tiny pieces!

"Courage.. What's happening!?" Scarecrow yelled. He stomped on the brakes repeatedly but it was no use by the ridiculous speed enabled by Computer.

"That twit can't even drive straight, i'll show you the difference between courage and fear."

"Noooooo!" Courage shook his head in despair, until he began to bite the steering wheel trying to steer. Both Scarecrow and the dog's effort was futile. The brigade's van rushed through the storm faster than ever as if the red mass of death was closing down on the vehicle if they ever slowed down. It was almost zero vision. They couldn't know if they were still following the road, or they went off-road to a wrong direction. They had to keep going forward and with that in mind, they could reach the mountain without having the occasion of being fried or buried in sand.

The blue glow of the vehicle in a huge sandstorm makes it look like a glowing star in outer space. Inside the van, the other allies closed their eyes, praying to get out of this madness alive.

"What is... this!?" What's happening?" Hunchback asked in a horrifying tone but loud enough since they couldn't even hear themselves thinking by the fury weather noise.

"It is that stupid machine!" Shirley yelled while clenching her teeth.

"BWUUAAAARRRUUUUUUU!" Bigfoot howled while holding Hunchback tight.

Suddenly they heard the sound of a horn in the distance. Courage and Scarecrow heard it as well and it sounded like a train horn approaching them very fast actually. Courage looked on the rear-view mirror and... it wasn't a train.

A little hot rod painted in silver with a faction symbol placed on its hood showing a black raven skull with two black feathers crossed was emerging through the storm as well honking with its train horn installed acting like a warning signal. Its windows were pitch black as the driver could not be seen. Whoever was the mysterious driver, it was following the brigade's van. Flames were unleashed out of the rod's exhaust pipes bursting with speed as well trying to keep up with the allies. It is approaching on their right side of the van then rams of the side of the vehicle.

"That wasn't very polite, you know. Let go of me, twit!" Computer told. The steering wheel with Courage's mouth still gripped to it holding himself with his life, steered right side without the dog's will. Ramming back the hot rod out of the way. After a few little attempts to escape from the mysterious car, Computer directed the van to ram harder than ever this time, sending the hot rod away from their sight. However the wind speed of the storm picks up and lifts the hot rod up in the air.

Both Courage and Scarecrow looks up at the flying vehicle almost about to be destroyed by the storm's force and lightning as it did eventually...

_**BOOM!**_

Thousands of hot rod parts flew across the sky, but there wasn't a sign of the driver at least. A few ravens flew out along with their croaking noise out of the wrecked vehicle. As it seems that they were the ones who were driving. But not a moment too soon they were immediately fried by the storm. All of Courage's allies witnessed the sky explosion and its victims through their windows not believing what they saw. Scarecrow felt also a bit scared thinking the birds were about to come after him after this encounter, but seeing the ravens didn't stood a chance outside, he left a little smirk. Even if they weren't crows.

"What... was that?!" Computer asked.

"Nothing good! Can you please... Slow Down!?" Courage told. He was concerned about his friend not wasting again a lot of gas which no doubt it was kinda late for that.

"Not in this weather of death. I know what i'm doing, we'll be out of here in no time-"

"NO, YOU'RE NOT!" Courage's teeth began to sharpen. And not a moment too soon a huge debris of a wrecked ship flew across the sky in the distance approaching towards the vehicle, about to hit it actually.

Computer turns the steering wheel immediately to left side getting out of way from where the ship was about to land on top of them. Courage wasn't wearing any seatbelt and by the unexpected turn that caught the dog off guard, the pink hound hits his head up against the door window pretty hard.

"COURAGE!" Scarecrow yelled while having a nasty grin of anger on its face. Seeing the dog was now knocked out unconscious with a little head bruise, he was about to punch the dashboard Computer without hesitation. Before he was doing it so, another wreckage debris of a truck appeared in front of them and Scarecrow quickly unjammed the steering wheel turning to right side.

"What is going on in there!?" Shirley yelled without knowing what's happening in the van's cabin. Her voice was barely noticeable.

"COURAGE IS OUT!" Scarecrow yelled very loud so he can tell his allies inside the van.

"WHAT!?" Both Hunchback and Shirley screamed. And Bigfoot as well. "WAAARUU!?"

"Temporarily knockout. After we're through this storm we can-" Computer got interrupted.

"SHUT UP!" Scarecrow slammed harder the brakes again and still won't slow down the vehicle in one bit.

Lightnings were still booming in the background. Hundreds of wrecked car debris, house holdings or torn off building roofs were flying around in the fury of the storm. Computer really has outdone it this time, even though his method of driving uncontrollably through the sandstorm for the entire brigade may destroy his friends's trust, it was only a matter of time before his energy wears off and returns to normal looking, without that blue glow. Courage remained unconscious still breathing throughout the scenery, but somewhere deep in his mind... went blank. He could hear now some strange whispers coming through his ears, not hearing anymore the reality's loud noise.

* * *

It is quiet. Too quiet. Until...

...

...

"Cou... rage..."

...

...

"...Hehhehe..."

...

...

"Who... who's calling... me?" The pink dog spoke in the darkness.

...

...

"There is... Rage... In Courage... Hehehe!..." The strange voice told.

...

"Who.. are you?.. Where am i?"

...

The strange voice began to spoke a bit louder and clear almost matching with Courage's voice.

...

"I am you. In the void." Followed by a distorted sound of a growling dog.

...

"Oooohh..." Courage could barely see himself in the dark but he was downright terrified to finally hear himself talking in a raging tone.

...

"P-please... Don't hurt me!"

...

"HAHAHAHAHAHA No."

...

"Are you even real? Show yourself then!" The dog demanded.

...

"Hehehe.. yes i am you, stupid coward." It was clearly the rage demon Courage had feared.

...

"How are you inside me? What do you want?"

...

"I will not hurt you. I won't let you die either. You and me.. are meant to be together.. for all eternity." The demon giggled. "If i die, you will too."

...

"No! I don't trust you! Let me out!" Courage begged and started to run in the middle of the darkness without any signs of exit. Until he panted and became exhausted.

...

"Only i can free you. You are nothing without me."

...

"NO! YOU LIE!" Courage cried and whimpered not buying the demon's attention. The dog begins to run again in pitch black darkness away from that horrific voice.

...

"You can run but hiding from your own fury is futile. Hehehe!" In the darkness popped out two red eyes in front of Courage. It made the pink hound stop in his tracks. The demon growled and eventually it came out of the darkness a twisted version of Courage, a much bigger twin, dark pink more into purple and frightening. It matched perfectly the pose back when Courage fought off the spider back in the diner.

...

"Hello, Coward!" He spoke scaring off Courage to bits. The pink dog screamed in his generic tone until he stopped, waiting for his rage self to make a move.

...

"You are me!?" Courage's spine was already frozen with horror.

"You bet i am, stupid coward!" The Rage Demon told.

"Stop calling me that!"

The furious demon leaned in front of Courage's face still growling looking straight into his eyes. The pink dog saw only horror while Rage saw many broken insights out of Courage's past. The creature was pleased by that cause it fills him with so much insanity vibe. Courage wasn't sure how did he ended up seeing his own self more mad than ever in a dark place like this, or how he would manage to wake up back to reality. But Rage was only his option. Courage sits up and stands up against him.

"I wanna.. go home!" Courage begged.

"I will call you a coward! Until you realize that it was ME who kept you alive all this time!" Rage yelled.

"You.. were with me all along?"

"Don't tell me you didn't know!"

"No, i still don't believe you! This must be a nightmare! I need to wake up!" Courage grabbed his ears in despair.

Rage barked "Coward, like always!" He laughed at the same time.

"Get out... get out of my mind..." Courage clenched his teeth.

"Oh i will! Hehehe... Over your dead body." Rage vanished back into darkness.

Courage leaned down on his knees with his eyes closed and shakes his head like crazy attempting to wake up.

"Sweet dreams, my dear cowardly brother!" Rage Demon spoke in a distorted voice this time and laughed again.

"BROTHER!?" Courage let out a loud howl. Louder enough he woke up back to reality.

* * *

When he opened slowly his eyes, he couldn't believe what he saw. The sandstorm was nearly gone as the Courageous Brigade was already reaching the top of Mt. Nowhere. The loud roaring of the storm was starting to calm down. His head bruise was bandaged but he still felt little pain.

Fearing he would lose control again of his inner insanity after meeting up with his own raging demon, Courage tries not to overreact instantly as he is laid down on the blanket. The van was no longer glowing blue, meaning the dashboard Computer returned back to his normal self. The pink dog wasn't anymore in the cabin with Scarecrow, but he was surrounded by his other allies instead inside the van. How the dog was moved in was more likely that Scarecrow picked him up while Computer was still driving the vehicle itself. Reaching for the rear side and giving him to Bigfoot.

Bigfoot was smelling Courage probably to sense something unusual about the dog. His big monster eyes were glaring at Courage with concern, but the hound's eyes got widen and then... he screamed. Shirley and Hunchback got startled. Bigfoot screamed as well with Courage afterwards. When they both stopped, Hunchback told "Settle down... boys!" Courage not only has an eye scar but at least his bruise on his head was healing up. The first thing on his mind was about raging instability. He couldn't take this much longer and decides to tell his friends what happened during his unconscious state.

"Guys... i need help."

"What is it?" Hunchback asked.

"My... my own twisted self... i seen it."

"It is the demon, is it not?" Shirley thought. Bigfoot groaned.

"Y-y-yes..." Courage felt so worried.

Bigfoot suddenly grabbed Courage and opens the dog's mouth with his bare paws. He begins to viciously roar thinking he would scare the demon off out of Courage through his mouth, the same way by getting rid of hiccups. The dog felt like he met his very worst dentist. The other two were shocked by Bigfoot's method.

"Let him go!" Hunchback demanded. Bigfoot releases Courage. At least he tried. Shirley facepalmed.

Courage panted, until the medium told him "We can't help you about that, Courage. You must fight for your own self-control."

"But.. but... he called me... brother." the dog spoke.

"What?" Both Shirley and Hunchback were stunned. The old man more likely heard about Courage's condition from the medium when the dog passed out.

The strong winds were now intensifying even more meaning the vehicle almost made it to the top of the mountain and the sight of the old Nowhere Church can be seen. At least they passed the sandstorm heading down below the mountain. As they drive right by the old wellspring filled with boulders instead of water, Scarecrow spotted something like a warning sign up ahead before they reach the church. Approaching slowly and slowly, Scarecrow and Computer witnessed that the warning sign was actually an animal chained upside-down on a wooden board. A white goat...

"Go back... Go back.. Go back.." The goat warned them, it was no joke. The poor old goat who was once the guardian of the spring was heavily beaten down with bruises and cuts while on his chest of his burnt down fur... was a logo taatoo showing Mad Dog's tag.

Scarecrow felt the urge of releasing the goat free, but the weather was against his favor. If he stops now, the wind has the force of sliding down the entire van off the edge and they would meet their doom when they hit the ditch. He continued the road, feeling guilty leaving the goat suffering outside. There was nothing he can do to help the goat, his limbs were broken and his horns were shattered while being heavily chained. Mad Dog will pay dearly for this...

Back to Courage, he explained his friends about his encounter with his broken emotions reincarnated in a full demon form. The allies of course were being concerned, and after hearing Courage's "dream", Shirley spoke: "Brother... Your raging emotion is not a joke, it is real. A sibling of your half behaving personality."

"I-I D-don't know if i am capable to control it" he was shaking in fear. "And i'm sure this is something impossible to scare off..." His eyes looked at Bigfoot. The dog sighed until the medium came to him telling, "Dog, this is your weapon. You are a coward indeed but your rage is something that completes your personality deed. Courage."

"My weapon almost killed you." he told.

"I am sure you'll figure it out once you finally control your inner rage power. There is no courage, without rage adrenaline. " She spoke. Both Bigfoot and Hunchback looked at themselves worried about Courage.

The pink dog still couldn't believe it, he was named Courage by Muriel back in the alleyway when he was just an abandoned pup. True to the fact that it was his destiny to protect the ones he loved, but after his failure to protect his parents, Courage was determined not having that situation repeating again with the Bagge couple overtime. ...In which it did happened here. Leading his courageous adrenaline forming up into rage. Like he couldn't take it no more. His sanity is shattered like a broken glass.

It is a miracle that his past memories are still living within Courage's mind, but for now the dog decides to move on still, staying all worried and scared wasn't going to do any good for him either. And therefor the Courageous Brigade has finally reached Nowhere Church. The weather was back to normal again even though dark clouds were still covering the sky, and the wind was still blowing. Not in a blizzard way this time like in within sandstorms. Everything seems to be normal as they continued to drive further, until for some reason the atmosphere was beginning to heat up. When the vehicle was approaching the church, Scarecrow immediately hit the brakes before he could ever meet their death already.

The unholy cathedral leaning by the crater edge was surrounded by rivers of lava... emanating straight out of the mountain which it is now a volcano. Now they knew where all the smoke came from. The building was also reconstructed by wardogs, with tons of metal structures and scrap built from underneath the church, preventing it from sliding down with the lava stream into the abyss. It had a bell tower standing up straight while its architecture had seen better days. But what was the purpose of it? The wardogs captured Hunchback's home making it as their final outpost. A volcano with such tremendous height they can see whoever enters or leaves Nowhere Ruins.

After the van stopped, they inspected the area. The church itself doesn't seem to have a welcoming committee but after witnessing the beaten up goat down the road, both Computer and Scarecrow presumed the enemies could be waiting for them to attack by surprise. In the heat of this moment, the wind could blow up hot air instead of cold and dusty air.

"This is our ticket out of Nowhere." Computer told, and the vehicle has ran out of gas again. Scarecrow with his hands firmly tied to the steering wheel, was looking with extra caution on the lava rivers overflowing down the other side of volcano. Luckily the stream didn't catch up the road edge from where the brigade came as well.

"I suppose you don't mind repairing my dashboard after you punched it." Computer reminded him about his minor rage when Computer went nuts. Apparently his blue glowing energy lasted only for an hour or two, considering that the entire vehicle needs a serious lookout, the processor cannot hold up much longer like it used to.

"You need more repairs than that anyway, stand your ground, you'll live." Scarecrow said with an irritating tone. He went outside checking his other friends who came out too. Everyone witnessed now their final place standing between their freedom and main objective. Hunchback's memories came back to him when he returned home now infested with evil and danger. He almost shed tears seeing his only place he has grown up being vandalized, destroyed and rebuilt by hordes of vicious dogs. The road leaving Nowhere Ruins just past the volcano flowing with lava streams and the church is heavily guarded by four wardogs on motorcycles along with a catapult armed with fireballs.

The warcats called it the Sledgehammer, not only it launches fireballs in the air but its throwing mechanical arm stomps the ground when the wardogs reloads it. And the dogs are used to ground shaking, cause it keeps the rival gang of cats away. It is so heavy and durable that not even the sandstorms can take it down to its knees. Mad Dog has chosen this only weapon of might for Nowhere as a defense tool. Nobody enters or leaves the area without paying 'taxes'. But the brigade wasn't going to give up that easily.

The entire team gone out of the vehicle looking at their standing. Courage gulped. He looks at his friends, as they looked at him as well. "I know i'm not gonna like this..."

A tiny burning pebble pops out of the lava and lands right on the dog's limb. Without noticing that, Courage's eyes got widen while smelling something like burning fur. He slowly looks down only to find that his right leg was now on fire...

"GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRHHHHH!" Courage screaming began to run in flaming agony encircling his friends. Hunchback takes out a bottle of water and splashes Courage with it. Now all wet, he thanks him nonetheless for extinguishing the flame. Computer couldn't help but chuckle on that sight, and Courage was not amused.

"Please, can't we... just leave my home... and go back?" Hunchback suggested.

"And heading down back to that sandstorm? I'm afraid not." Shirley told.

"WWARUUBUURAAGHH" Bigfoot talked gibberish while waving his hands.

"It doesn't look like it held any hostages in that church, nobody can live in this condition. Except for wardogs." Scarecrow examined.

"Do we have a plan?" Courage asked.

"I have one." Computer said. "Why don't we all just jump into the volcano before that catapult hits us?"

"How stupid can you be- " Shirley scolds the machine but got interrupted with a giant flaming ball was already up in the air about to hit them.

"LOOK OUT!" Hunchback yelled making the entire brigade's eyes widen. Courage also screamed again!

Bigfoot immediately kicked their van with his mighty foot out of the way from the fireball's range. Everyone bailed out of the way as the gigantic fireball hits the ground. Now the back road they came was blocked. No way of returning back, the van was slightly damaged again but it was no more in danger. Computer didn't liked it either. "Ouch, how rude. I swear i'll be turned into scrap before-"

"SHH! Quiet!" Courage shushed him. His friends were laid down on the ground in silence, for a few seconds. They wanted to make the wardogs believe they have finished them. MD's gang couldn't see properly what's going on the top crater since they were standing down below the volcano with their catapult in the storm almost fading out.

"Is everyone okay?!" Courage asked.

"We're fine." Shirley replied. "Better not scream again or we won't be okay." She dusted off the dirt from her robes.

Courage was sweating awkwardly. "Heh.. sorry." His scream resulted gaining the catapult wardogs's attention, so it was his best to remain silent even if he can't help it due to its nature. Everyone were reunited and began to consult.

"By the way, what was that strange vehicle with birds that got blown up in the storm?" Computer asked.

"It was really weird but we'll found out." Scarecrow said.

"Can we pass the church without being hit again by fireballs?" Courage asked.

"UUUURGHH... BUWARUUGHU." Bigfoot doubted crossing his arms"

"Let's just go, we don't have any options now do we?" Shirley said. With their van out of gas, Hunchback's home was their only place to investigate and seeing there isn't any wardog standing outside of the building, was an advantage. Making their journey across lava rivers easier but still with extra caution.

"Who's gonna stay with me?" Computer surely doesn't like to stand alone exposed as a vehicle. The team looked at him with hatred after what happened during the sandstorm. Until Scarecrow volunteered. "You go, i'll stay. I have some unfinished business to take care of." He cracked his knuckles.

"On a second thought, i changed my mind. I like to stay alone, thank you very much!" Computer replied with fear knowing of what Scarecrow is capable of, but Courage trusted him. After all Computer needs some good "upgrading" if he wants to help his friends. Only Bigfoot, Hunchback, Shirley and Courage were left to continue on.

As they all bunny hopped on rocks in the middle of the lava river reaching for the church, the storm was lifted completely. The fury of the storm was no match for the courageous brigade. Once they get inside of the unholy cathedral, they would more likely scavenge and preparing for a possible wardog brawl, that is if they haven't left by the sheer danger of the lava rivers surrounding the building. Courage's thoughts were on his raging self still, he wonders if the demon was right about his nature being. Coward and Rage forming up... Courage.

* * *

**THE END of Chapter 6**.

**_Author's Note:_** I really do need to pay more attention on details when interacting with every character's doings or speeches, but time's been so busy with me in reality. :l


	7. A Bell And A Prayer

**TCB: Chapter 7: A Bell And A Prayer**

* * *

_**[Nowhere Ruins]**_

_(Mad Dog's Control = 1 Point) - (Katz's Control = Zero)_

* * *

At the bottom of Mount Nowhere, where Mad Dog's gang of wardogs were setting up their catapult for their next possible victim of being crushed by fireball projectiles, a wounded wardog who was not with them came along crawling in pain and barely able to speak. His wounds were very bad exposed assuming it was one of the wardogs who survived back at the oil refinery. He whispered something into the wardog catapult commander's ear that perked him up and growl.

The wardog commander orders one of his buddies to go and send a message directly to Mad Dog, while the twitching and wounded wardog on the ground passes out. Now only three enemies were left at the catapult site. And there was nothing they could do about their injured comrade that gave his last breath, laying dead on the ground before their eyes.

We head up back at the top of the mountain crater which it was more likely a volcano. The Courageous Brigade was heading down visiting for the first time ever Hunchback's church fortified by Mad Dog's goons. Their mobile home controlled by Computer was left alone with Scarecrow right next to a huge boulder blocking the road they came from. Left with very low amount of resources again, their only option was to explore the cathedral. Scarecrow didn't like the idea of leaving his friends facing whatever danger it may be hidden inside the unholy place.

He trusted Bigfoot to look out after them, since the big guy is almost overprotective as he is. Computer however, received a nice 'upgrading' from Scarecrow after his driving attitude almost costed the brigade's life during the sandstorm. Meaning that Scarecrow unplugged the processor out through the vehicle's radio where he was originally plugged in. Leaving it on the seat, just so that Scarecrow won't have to hear the machine's arguments while fixing all the vehicle damage casualties again with his wrench. Computer of course resisted, but he was so lucky for being the only family member left for Courage, otherwise Scarecrow would have thrown the processor down in the lava. The machine had to obey for Courage's sake.

Computer was left alone in silence as a little innocent processor chip, until Scarecrow completes the repairs then he will plug the chip back. He doesn't expect anything nicely from the machine in return, but Scarecrow keeps ignoring and stands focused on their objective.  
Hunchback wasn't so eager to return back home, judging by its dark and evil ambiance the place provides, it gives him and his friends a reason enough to be frightened and prepared. Courage's mind was rolling like a merry-go-round, there were so many thoughts and questions the dog seemed to had enough since the apocalypse brought only agony.

How much could a dog be put under stress by all of this unforgiving land of Hell? How long could his friends can bear this adventure of seeing the sight of freedom away from oppression? Will this be all worth it? Can't this inner rage emotion be cured even though it's impossible? What are the villains planning to do in the meantime? Are Kitty and Bunny still alive? And how will Courage cope his lost owners... Only the dog can find the answers as they progress with the journey. For now the brigade were about to open to doors of Nowhere Church.

The weather doesn't seem to be on their favor either, as the sky was all red after a wild sandstorm. It was hard to tell if the sun sets or something supernatural is already happening. At least they weren't anymore back at the Bagge Farm worrying about Windmill Vandals.

All of them four were standing and checking the construction integrity of the church, looking at every direction for possible surprise attacks by wardogs. Luckily that wasn't the case unlike the oil refinery's security.

"I'm not going in..." Hunchback said, as he stood still behind watching his friends attempting to open the doors. They don't seem to budge.

"Neither do we. But we can't go on without something to find." Courage replied. "It is your home, right?"

"It's not... my home anymore. Let's go." The old man knew he was captured when he tried to reach home first time around, he didn't want that to happen again. He wanted to return back.

"We can't go back. And even if we take a detour around this place, we will end up extra crispy." Shirley told showing the rivers of lava overflowing on the other side of the church.

Hunchback looked down in disappointment and scared as well. His mind was telling him to stay or go back but his instinct was telling him to not let his friends down or in danger either.

"I know you really don't like this." Courage came closer to him. "Let's go together, nobody should be left behind alone." The pink hound looked straight into the old man's eyes. He sensed fear which is understandable. "Scarecrow is with Computer already in the back in case things turn out ugly, and you have us. Please." Courage begged with his paw on Hunchback's cape.

Hunchback looked back at Courage in sadness then he turns his head up gazing the dark and evil church. Waiting for its uninvited guests to meet their doom by their first step through those huge doors. What other solution they had if they wanted to stock up on resources again to survive longer? Food, water, gas and salvage were critical for survival. Where there's high risk, there's high pay.

The old man finally nodded after a few seconds of thoughts, Bigfoot immediately joined him with a smirk of hope, Courage gave him a smile too and they turned their attention back at the locked doors.

Up high at the huge old bell tower something sparkled, and Courage could have sworn he saw something or someone moved in the shadows. He shook his head and then checks the front doors. They were indeed closed shut. After so many pulling attempts by Courage to pry it open, he panted and gave up until Bigfoot offered himself to kick the doors open with his mighty foot several times. And after one final effort kick...

_**BAM!**_

* * *

The doors were destroyed. Inside was nothing but darkness while there were some bits of light coming from the outside through shattered windows. Huge columns on each side were supporting the upper floor balcony of the church, while in front was the main altar with a holy cross covered in dust and sprayed in red. The walls were sprayed with grafitti showing Mad Dog's tag along with some skulls and bones impaled on metal spears to intimidate intruders.

"Oooohh!" Courage like always was down-right terrified. His friends walked in slowly exploring the inside layout. Temperature was even more warm than outside. Hunchback went in front of the altar with his friends following him. After they looked around once more to check if nobody was sneaking around them, Hunchback witnessed a black book on the floor. The holy bible with its cover damaged and clawed. When he picks it up, his eyes were hooded in sadness.

"Hey!" Courage came beside him. "Huh..."

Hunchback stood a few seconds in silence looking at the bible. Bigfoot and Shirley showed no signs of reaction as they noticed that Hunchback began to grip the book harder until his hands were shaking. Courage stepped back noticing the old man felt unpleasant.

"Uhh... the old one?" Shirley called him out.

"It's all gone..." Hunchback told. He took a deep breath and shouted as he closed his eyes, rising the book up above his head. "IT'S ALL GONE!" Luckily he didn't yelled louder enough to be heard from outside. But he begins to cough afterwards.

The trio stepped back away from Hunchback shocked knowing that they never heard him yell like that before. The old man drops it for he has ran out of air and tries to regain his breath back. It was hard to cry and breathe at the same time but Courage and Bigfoot quickly interfere to help him out. When the book hits the floor, a very old picture comes out of it. Shirley picks it up and on the picture it was showing a very young Hunchback along with a puppy pet next to him holding golden bells together in front of the altar.

"This was your dog, yes?" she asked showing the photo to him.

Hunchback turns around after clearing his throat and immediately snatches the photo from Shirley's paw. His eyes were widen after taking a closer look since he lost his glasses. His puppy was little white Teckel, cheerful and full of energy, wearing a collar with a golden cross attached to it and holding a bell in his mouth.

"T-T-Terry..." he spoke softly the dog's name.

"I didn't knew you hav-.. had a dog too." Courage told. "What happened to him?"

"..." Hunchback began to shed tears after looking at the photo. One tear landed on the dog's pose. Only he knew what was the deal between him and Terry. He couldn't find proper words to explain as he let his emotions take over only instead.  
Bigfoot looks at him with concern until Courage quote: "Oh.. I.. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ask, it's just- "

"Terry abandoned me." The old man finally found the ability to speak. Something moved quickly in the shadows behind the church columns and that caught Shirley's attention as she took a peek behind her. She didn't knew what was that, but she can assume one thing in her mind.

'We're being watched.' She thought with her eyes hooded still looking behind her.

"The very first friend... i ever had. Now gone... ran away... when those bad people wanted... to destroy my home." Hunchback told. "I thought i would... find him. But i ended up... wandering forever. Looking for shelter... in the rain..." he coughes again.

"Ok we get it now." Courage came to him to calm the old man down. "Don't waste your energy. Please!" But Hunchback couldn't help it. Also where were the wardogs that captured Hunchback to be taken in Mad Dog's prison? The old man was bracing himself for that the moment when the doors were blown away by Bigfoot. Yet it was all spooky and quiet inside the cathedral but nothing is always the way as it seems.

Bigfoot began to talk again meaning that he wants to go now. Courage took notice and quote: "Let's go find anything useful around. It's a good thing there aren't wardogs here,  
And maybe... we'll find Terry if he's alive or not." Hunchback was already assuming the worst.

The fact the he lost all of his bells except the one attached to his cane, his puppy Terry may not have survived even before the apocalypse, or he got captured as well by Mad Dog and moved somewhere else, Hunchback was buried in deep doubts.

"Let us go." Shirley spoke. "We haven't got much time before we start burning up in here by this heat." She took her blue hood off her head and wipes the sweat before putting it back on.

"Right." Courage began sweating too like crazy as well as his other two friends.

Bigfoot began to sniff for any possible food around and takes the lead, followed by his friends. Before they were heading upstairs to the upper floor, the team then noticed bits of bones and skulls wrecked to pieces on the floor. Some of them were human like, and some were of animal type. Courage gulped seeing this and he knew now that it was a bad idea exploring Hunchback's home.

The stairs were creaking with wooden noise about to snap any moment due to its fragile instability. Bigfoot was doing his best to not to break them while walking up the stairs but his toes were tough as heavy bricks. Once they reached the upper floor, they had found a water collector but its bottles were half empty. Hunchback took them nonetheless. On the walls were hanging very old portraits of different priests heavily damaged, clawed or sprayed with MD's tag on them. This entire church looked like a war zone. Busts of angels and eagles were smashed to pieces on the floor and not a single candle was lit up.

'How come i never found this place before?' Thought Courage.

"Was it always like this?" He asked.

"No, and now that i think of it... as far as i remember... even your owners were... married in here." Hunchback told, after remembering now Muriel and Eustace's wedding during his youth.

"You knew Muriel and the farmer!?"

"I didn't. Until i came to your home... then i knew right away who were the owners... i had witnessed many years ago."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Courage perked.

Hunchback giggled, "You never asked."

"Perhaps, Courage, some things are better left forgotten now." Shirley spoke.

"But i want to know more. There's so many things i haven't seen or learned about- "

A crumble noise interrupted Courage's speech, and that startled the entire team. Bigfoot looks around for that noise and with full confidence, he goes for that sound source.

"Big boy, wait up!" Hunchback called him out to wait for them.

And they kept walking with Bigfoot leading, still sniffing to track down food and the noise. He also sensed something really fishy therefor he continued anyhow. They haven't had eaten anything since their barbeque night so they better had to hurry.

Let's not forget that this place was destroyed by the meteor impact but the wardogs rebuilt it. Some parts of the church like wall or floor holes were covered with solid steel from scrap. The brigade reached now the organ room.

It seems that noise was caused by a ceiling debris which it fell down on the floor, exposing the church's attic. The blowing pipes of the organ were damaged as well but the keys seem to be in good shape even though everything was covered in dust and spider webs.

"This place is about to come down." Courage witnessed the weak structural integrity while his expression was without a doubt about to go white. "Where are the wardogs? Are they hiding?"

Shirley took a closer look on the animal bones on the floor, and inside the skeleton ribcage there was a piece of cloth fabric with a tag on it. "Take a look, Courage."

"Huh?" The pink hound turns around to Shirley and sees the skeleton pointed by the medium. Courage then recognized the fabric this skeleton once wore. M.D.'s wardogs were dead long before they came.

Courage gasped with eyes widen. Bigfoot however smiled seeing the organ instrument and he went quickly to play with it as he thought he had nothing to worry about.

A few steps forward when approaching the instrument, he was about to hit a note key but instead... the key pressed by its own. This can't be happening. The team was startled by the organ noise now dominating the entire church interior. Lots of flying insects flew out of the blowing pipe and music was about to form all of a sudden. Bigfoot was confused at first but then he gasped with his jaws dropped, stepping back.

"Bigfoot! Please that's enough!" Courage plugged his ears, while not loving the music.

"He's not the one playing." Shirley corrected him.

The organ started to play a sinister music all by its own, and that gives the brigade a reason enough to stay alert. Could be ghosts now? Ridiculous!

Bigfoot and Hunchback was starting to feel unpleasant by the room interior arousal. It smelt like wet fur. The big monster still sniffs nonetheless his armpits to check if he was the one sweating worse than his team. With eyes widen he left a disgusting expression after inhaling deeper, but at least he knew it wasn't him.

The black shadowy figure again moved very fast behind past the team in just a millisecond.

Courage and his friends were startled by that unexpected wind speed. They all turned themselves around to see what was that. Still nothing. Whoever is sneaking around, it likes to play a little game before showing up. They assumed it could be an ordinary wardog who survived.

A spirit of a human was starting to form up on the organ chair. He was dressed like a priest. Then Hunchback immediately recognized the music he was playing, and the priest they all just witnessed. It was indeed a ghost. Courage shivered entirely while the others were stunned like a rock seeing who was playing the organ.

The ghost of the priest that Hunchback used to work for when he was alive back in his youth. It's music sounded like a mixture of Hunchback's dark version theme and a death warning song. The ghost disappeared but its music was still playing.

"This spirit... must be unsettled by something.. or someone that killed him." Shirley attempted to read its supernatural energy. "It tries to warn the old one... to get out." Bigfoot and Courage were holding tight together shivering with their eyes widen and teeth clenching.

"H-h-he's going to... k-k-kill us?" Courage barely asked in shock and frozen with horror.

"No, someone else will." Shirley then got her eyes widen by a noise that was coming from the top tower, where the huge rusty bell was still hanging. The other allies heard it too which it increased their worries even more. The organ music still won't stop.

"Let's get... out of here then." Hunchback suggested as he had enough having his past memories now haunting him.

"B-But we haven't even found any food, or some plan to get through that catapult outside." Courage told. "And i feel like something's going on in here." He turns his head to left and right suspecting that they are being watched indeed.

"D-d-dog... " The old man was about to say something to Courage but he immediately held his breath hearing a strange dog bark that wasn't coming from the pink hound. He couldn't believe it. After so many years he sworn he heard Terry's barking. His old eyes were widen and began to play with his bell cane, seeing if Terry can respond back even if the organ music was playing in the background.

Terry barked again once. Hunchback's expression turned into happiness believing now that his long lost pet have returned and survived the apocalypse too. He ran past his friends without hesitation reaching for the barking sound like they were never with him.

"He-hey, wait up!" Courage called him out, followed by Bigfoot and Shirley trying to catch up with him.

Hunchback as he ran faster even though he was aware that his age will slow him down eventually, quickly noticed the trapezes hanging up on the ceilings, and grabs them. Swinging up in the air helped him out boosting his speed to reach for the bell tower. Some catwalks and floors were already shattered or too unstable to reach it by just on foot.

Courage, Shirley and Bigfoot stopped their tracks since they couldn't catch an acrobatic expert like Hunchback. They all looked up seeing him already arrived at the top floor. The large bell that was still hanging by rusty chains above them made the brigade feeling unpleasant. They shouldn't even be there knowing that the bell chain may snap and fall onto their heads due to its fragile strength.

Hunchback could see everything from up there, even the brigade van which it was still there parked outside as they left. Behind him he could see the large volcanic crater emanating smoke but it doesn't seem like it's about to explode. Up on the dark red sky, the Moon was barely seen behind the dominating smoke clouds.

He finally noticed something was shaking on the floor under a dirty blanket. Skeletons and blood stains were the most impressive 'decorations' for the bell tower room. You can barely breathe at this height due to smoke coming from the outside through wooden holes. Hunchback was desperately trying to get out of there as fast as he can by the priest's warning, but he had to take that chance if those barking sounds haven't lost in the old man's mind when remembering about his pet.

"Ohhh..." The old man not only was already terrified, but noticed his old drawer where he kept his bells was empty and dusty. It was hard to tell if he felt like, back home again after wandering as a hobo, although Hunchback prefers in a more decent environment just like in his youth time obvious.

He gulped and braced himself if whoever was shaking under that blanket was indeed Terry or the mysterious creature who was sneaking upon them was feasting upon the poor dog like it did with the priest. Just seeing the unsettled and continuous shaking made Hunchback nervous to reach it.  
The old man was approaching slowly with his cane in his hand and his mask underneath his cape. Preparing to defend himself as he finally touches the blanket.

He closes his eyes while taking out the blanket, ready to get attacked, however that wasn't the case. It revealed to be Terry after all... all grown up and showing battle scars.

The white dog felt scared and continuing shaking almost matching Courage's personality. But when his eyes were fixed on Hunchback, he barked once again confused. The old man threw away the blanket seeing his dog laying on the floor trembling.

"Terry? Is that.. you!? Where have you... been all this time?.." He leaned down on his knees before his dog. The hound sticks out his tongue in a happy way this time and touches the old man's hand.

"I thought... i lost you." The only time a person is relived to take the wrong assumption about everything being literally gone. Or so he thought. Just as he was hugging his long lost adorable companion all matured and wounded, Terry was beginning to snarl.

The organ music suddenly stopped. That couldn't sound good...

The other allies were thinking of how to reach Hunchback to check up on him and an idea has lit up by Bigfoot. He picks up Shirley and Courage to sit them on his shoulders as he begins to climb up on the walls. Of course he had to break through the wall with his gigantic feet to form up steps for better grip stability. Courage could have climb up as well but Bigfoot insisted in helping.

"Hang on. We're coming." Courage said with his paws on his chest very worried. He was also afraid if Bigfoot would accidentally slip and fall but that wasn't the case since he used to climb up mountains as well.

"And hurry, our friend is in danger!" Shirley spoke.

"What?!" Courage and Bigfoot got all perked up.

"Music has stopped, the spirit has left to witness the killer's next victim." Her eyes got widen giving a serious look on her friends.

Suddenly Hunchback's dog, Terry was about to go slowly for the old man's ear to bite it off. He released the dog from his hugging and got stoned about Terry's sudden change of personality.

"T-T-Terry?" Hunchback was crawling backwards on the floor, away from his pet.

The white hound was approaching him, spilling blood out of his mouth and its eyes were turning bright orange. Turns out that all the bones and blood around the church were... his victims. Including the priest and the wardogs. Hunchback's eyes wide open stood still looking at his poor puppy now turning into a monster.

Bigfoot, Courage and Shirley finally reached the bell tower room. Along with Hunchback they have just witnessed Terry feeling quite unusual once his wild animal instincts take effect. His jaw suddenly grew while his paws unleashed its sharp claws. His white fur begins to shed exposing signs of mutation on his skin. Drooling blood instead of saliva he quickly jumped for Hunchback's head.

The old man also quickly pulled out Eustace's green mask for protection but that didn't worked out while Terry... no the White Tyrant didn't get scared at all by it. Sitting on the mask clawing over and over until bits of scrap were shedding off the mask, Courage jumped in action. He picks up the drawer and throws it onto the Tyrant, knocking the monster away from Hunchback.

The trio ran quickly towards their old friend laid on the floor.

"COME ON! We gotta get out of here!" Courage lifts up Hunchback, while Bigfoot and Shirley stood focused on the Tyrant.

"No! He needs help!" Hunchback cried letting go of Courage without thinking he may be killed.

The Tyrant sits back up growling in fury and speeds up towards the brigade. This time Bigfoot jumps in front of him preparing to defend the old man. As soon as Terry approached to slice down Bigfoot, Shirley pulled out her mallet, climbs up on Bigfoot's head and as she jumps in the air, she tries to whack Terry's head down.

But she fails, the Tyrant immediately grabbed the mallet with his big jaws as soon as Shirley was about to land on him. He swings it in every direction making the medium losing control of her grip.  
Eventually Shirley lets it go off her mallet and she was propelled into the air hitting herself up against the wall. The impact was harder enough to crack down the wooden wall.

Courage screamed by the sight of Tyrant's mutation strength.

Shirley laid down unconscious, the Tyrant turns his head on to his big meal instead, Bigfoot. Seeing the medium was out, the monster with huge feet begins to viciously roar with his huge mouth open unleashing his sharp teeth. Courage desperately picks up Hunchback out of the way, as soon as the Tyrant rammed Bigfoot with such a slamming force. Bigfoot grabbed Terry's head just so he won't let the white monster feasting on the other allies.

The Tyrant slams Bigfoot against the wall as well. Just when Terry was about to take his first bite while snarling in a horrific way, Bigfoot kicks him out with both of his huge feet sending the other monster away from him. Bigfoot got injured but he still had a bit of strength left. Turns out that the Tyrant was almost as powerful as Bigfoot. Courage and Hunchback ran towards Shirley to help her out.

"Shirley! Please wake up!" Courage cried while rubbing her cloth, but that didn't last long as the Tyrant got up again from his little brawl with Bigfoot. He then charges to Hunchback with his mouth open and Courage could see their death already if he didn't act. The pink hound picks up the unconscious Shirley and Hunchback the same way he used to pick up Muriel and Eustace to get out of the way.

For a weak and soul-broken dog, it's a miracle that his actions haven't flawed in the slightest. Even though he found it harder this time to pick up his friends quickly to avoid a close call. Bigfoot still limping from that hit, he picks up Shirley from Courage's paw.

"Get her out of here, please! Call for help!"

Bigfoot nodded but the big boy was worried about Courage and Hunchback. He cannot leave his friends in danger. Hunchback sets his eyes instantly on Terry with horror and fully heart-broken.

"GO!" Courage yelled.

"BEHIND YOU!" Hunchback screamed and It was too late..

Terry quickly strikes violently Courage's back harder than ever, dragging the pink dog on the floor until his whole body was pinned down. After that all that ongoing fight the entire room was filled with layers of thick smoke and dust. Bigfoot with Shirley in his grasp and Hunchback coughed feeling now exhausted for it became too much for everyone. They were now panicking, losing every courage they had and waiting for the Tyrant to finish what he started...

The brigade was obviously dealing with a mutated dog acting like a vicious bull more fearsome than Big Grivus. If Mad Dog ever knew about Hunchback's ex-pet he would more likely hire him, but since he murdered the wardogs too, the Tyrant would have to be locked in a cage with very strong chains for extreme occasions.

And the last thing Courage would need is losing his friends. He was definitely not going to let that happen! Not after he lost his sanity.

Courage all injured and laid he slowly opens his eyes in pain gazing Terry the White Tyrant slowly encircling Bigfoot, Hunchback and Shirley, who was about to wake up again. All of them were shaking in fear not daring to make a move anymore upon Terry. Suddenly Courage's eyes were widen after he saw that his friends's injuries have gone worse when they started to... bleed.

The pink hound's sad eyes were slowly fading into anger. He couldn't take no more of this. Not this time! Not again! Not his friends too!

Courage started to growl in fury letting his rage once again to take control over his whole body. Fur turning ruffled, teeth and claws got sharpen and his eyes were all red in an inexplicably flaming fury! He doesn't seem to care anymore if he would act up against his friends either without his will, but anything to bring down that mutated mutt was truly welcomed. He got up and barked getting the Tyrant's attention.

Courage strikes down on Terry's neck biting as hard as he can, just so that this monster can bleed as well. Seeing this opportunity, Hunchback and his friends were able to escape from Tyrant's clutches and stood still to a corner with Bigfoot protecting Shirley. And the old man was trying to think of something quick to save Courage!

Bigfoot and Hunchback knew now they were dealing with two unstable canine monsters in the middle of the bell room. An exchange of bites, slices and crying whimpers came from both enraging dogs. Eventually the Tyrant realizes that Courage was able to do more damage to him that he ever did with its victims. Courage chewed on Terry's limb making the white Tyrant limping.  
He retreats quickly when he was able to escape from Courage's jaws.

Terry suddenly changes back to his own normal self. Hunchback was left in awe. His little white dog quickly runs in fear and pain towards the old man. He quickly got behind his legs away from raging Courage cowardly shaking. The old man could not believe this! What is this dog?! A friend or foe?

"Terry!" Hunchback lifts up his dog to his arms. Seeing the heavily bruised white dog trying to breathe again by Courage's bite, the old man's eyes fixed upon raging Courage. The pink beast wasn't going to let him live like that, only for Terry to transform back and attack again.

"Courage, wait!" He yelled. Bigfoot stood still in his place protecting the medium. He could hear her groaning.

Hunchback suddenly played with his bell cane forming up music in case if Courage remembers it. The pink beast while racing towards Hunchback and Terry, he stops suddenly since a part of his memories was triggered by that bell sound. Courage's mind started to form an illusion. An image actually back when he and Hunchback used to play together in the barn.

And by that sound, it worked, just as Shirley confirmed when Courage doesn't remember anything in his raging state until something from his past memories is triggered within present time. Courage's head was still tingling looking at all direction without self-control. His brain cannot tell the difference between violence and courage. But his inner raging emotion begs to differ.

* * *

_"EAT HIM!" Raging personality demanded._

_"NO, I CAN'T!" Coward personality cries._

_"YOU LET THAT ANIMAL LIVE, IT'LL DO WORSE TO YOU!"_

_"IF I DO, YOU'LL MAKE ME HURT MY FRIENDS TOO!"_

_"YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS!"_

_"YOU'RE NOT MY FRIEND EITHER!"_

_"THEY'LL BETRAY YOU!"_

_"LEAVE ME ALONE!"_

_"THE MORE YOU LOVE, THE MORE YOU LOSE!"_

"GAAAAAAAAARRRHHH!" Courage's inner mind went truly nuts.

* * *

Eventually Courage regained back what's left of his sanity, fainting before his friends eyes but his raging form was still in effect. Innocent Terry jumped from Hunchback's lap hiding back under his blanket leaving a trail of blood behind him.

"C-C-Courage?" Shirley called, after awakening while rubbing her head.

Bigfoot releases her, and they both are going for the pink hound, while Hunchback was walking slowly back to his pet. That is until the medium turns around stops the old man.

"No!" She shouted. "Don't get closer. Not after what we have already seen that creature is capable of."

"But... He... didn't mean to do this... Can't i just get him... out of here too?" Hunchback asked looking at Terry still laid down while underneath his blanket pools of blood were forming.

"Old one, you don't understand." Her eyes got widen by old man's attitude.

"I do understand! That he's... changed. But now he needs... our help."

"Wrong. That dog helps himself." Shirley points out.

"Huh?" Hunchback turns around confused.

He now has witnessed that Terry's tongue was all over the floor licking all the blood that was leaking from himself under that blanket. And not for long it was about to emerge back to his own beast mode again, by the sound of growling.

Bigfoot picks up Courage recovering from his raging state as he was panting very fast. However the whole brigade stepped back as soon as Terry gets out of his blanket again. Sharp teeth and claws were about to unleashed again. It was Hunchback's choice now. Letting his pet devour them for he cannot hurt his companion despite his mutation, or he would save his friends instead but that'll cost a sacrifice.

The white Tyrant was ready for another meal as it approaches slowly towards the team. The old man was shaking in unimaginable fear for he couldn't know how to help his pet. He never liked to hurt him either, but standing still won't save his life and his friends. He looked up above Terry... the giant bell!

"I'm so sorry boy..." he was about to cry about to do the unimaginable, he closed his eyes in pain and throws his cane in the air hitting the giant bell's chain. It snapped causing the bell to fell on top of the white monster.

Terry's orange eyes got widen seeing the giant bell fell on top of him, the giant bell's weight was able to smash through the tower floors reaching the altar with Terry in it. The upper tower floor where the bell was originally hanged left a very huge floor hole.

The giant bell hits the altar floor eventually, crushing down on Terry instantly by the sheer numbers of steps and floors destroyed together with the bell's incredible weight. It crushed him like a pancake!

Hunchback looked down shedding tears for he had truly liberated his long time friend from a cannibalism life.  
More likely Terry had survived the apocalypse, but without finding better food, he began to eat whatever and whoever he could find, regardless of taste. Returning to the church where the white dog spent his entire life with Hunchback, he was ambushed by wardogs. But his unexpected transformation caused by the meteor shockwave, changed the course around in Terry's favor. The remaining wardogs who escaped out of the church alive have moved to the catapult site, leaving the white beast occupying the building.  
In case if Terry was about to come over to them, they were prepared. And they weren't going to inform Mad Dog about their lost outpost either cause they knew that'd be stupid to let Terry gain all the attention and not them.

Due to bell's weight, it also destroyed the support pillars from underneath the church, making the entire building leaning even more. From this event, Courage let out a horrific and generic scream. The destruction and the scream also caught Scarecrow's attention outside.

"Courage..." He muttered.

"Here we go again. Don't we have to do something?" Dashboard Computer asked.

But the entire church leaned down to a point where its about to slide on the side of the volcano along with the lava rivers.

"Yes we do!" Scarecrow hoped in the vehicle, revs the engine and ... nothing. He completely forgot they had almost no gas to continue on.

"For crying out loud!" He smacked the steering wheel in frustration. He got out and screamed the pink dog's name, with no response in return.

Meanwhile inside the building, the entire team was desperate to get out of there even though Courage has yet again fainted from his raging transformations. He was becoming very exhausted and it is a miracle that in the past events of raging moments hasn't resulted him a massive headache or heart attack judging by his crazy heartbeat and condition. Their quest of looking for more resources has failed with no sign of food or gas but they still collected some bottles with water.

The bell tower started to collapse and there was no time now to think of an escape plan. Bigfoot quickly picks up Courage and Shirley for them to stand on his shoulders. Just when he was about to pick up the old man up too, the floor cracks right away and Bigfoot was about to make a jump out of the tower's window.

Bigfoot heavy breathing, when they all knew they might land accidentally right into the lava rivers, he had no choice, rather than staying to be crushed down by hundreds of crumbling wall pieces, he was praying for a miracle.

"JUMP!" Scarecrow screamed outside. He has seen his friends standing right on the tower window's ledge.

"WE'RE HERE! JUST JUMP!" He shouted more.

Bigfoot looked down on their vehicle standing below him, he was ready to jump nonetheless. However he was blocked in thoughts, cause if he was about to land right on the vehicle before the church slides down, it would result a huge roof hole damaging the vehicle. Or he would jump now and land onto their death swimming in lava rivers.

Before he could do anything as the big guy became scared, the entire building couldn't hold up much longer and the entire structure began to slide down heading towards the catapult site. Suddenly... the ceiling hole exposing the church attic above the bell tower, fell a few gas canisters. This place had fuel after all stocked by wardogs! But no food, presuming that Terry ate them all.

"NO!" Scarecrow screamed seeing his friends mobilized inside the tower as they slide down.

"Now what?" Computer asked. Scarecrow witnessed the canisters that fell outside out of the building's attic containing fuel. He ran quickly and picks them up to refill their vehicle. That was indeed a miracle.

Scarecrow remained silent after he hoped inside back in the van...

He sees his friends trapped inside of a church going down the hill...

The trail left by the building made out of dirt and mud formed up an actual road heading towards the Sledgehammer catapult...

"Oh, you're not going to do what i think you might do?" Computer reads his serious face expression.

"Watch this."

He shifted gears and smashed harder the accelerate pedal making the wheels to do a fuming burnout. The van quickly bursted into high speed, chasing after his friends.

Down at the bottom the wardogs watched the unholy church beginning to dismantle brick by brick by the sheer amount of bumps. Inside the building everything was all messed up. Their eyes got widen and the wardog commander orders to fire the catapult at once before the incoming building could crush on them! Still their aim was awful. All the fireballs shot by the catapult landed around the building or on the sides, not hitting a single wall.

The other allies had enough, and Courage was able to finally woke up as well on Bigfoot's shoulder. His eyes didn't opened quite wide enough and he felt his heart being sliced by a sword after seeing their location now turned into a sleigh sliding on the volcano.

Hunchback was holding up tight against Bigfoot's fur, while Shirley grabbed his furry beard for stability, everyone was bracing themselves for an impact as soon as their ride is over.

Suddenly Hunchback felt extreme pain by his right leg! Like a thousand knives just pierced through his leg. It was Terry! He came back biting off the poor old man. He screamed in agony until his lungs were exploding. Bigfoot turns out seeing the white mutt won't give up without another fight. Shirley had enough as well seeing his friend devastated.

"You... Stupid... DOG!" In full fury she pulls out her mallet one last time and throws it. It hit his head indeed and lets it go off Hunchback's leg. With a painful head bruise, The Tyrant losses stability and its about to fall through the window straight into the lava river up ahead. Since when did Shirley inherited a little bit of Eustace's behavior, was kind of strange.

Before Terry could ever fall into his death finally, his white paw was suddenly grabbed by Courage. His allies could not believe what a stupid decision Courage was about to make.

"Courage, No!" The medium screamed.

"He needs help! It's not his fault!"

"Don't be like the stupid one! HE IS MUTATED!" She clenched her teeth not believing that Courage was about to save a monster.

Courage was desperate to keep his paw grip tight to Tyrant's paw. But their ride filled with bumps makes it harder for Courage and his friends to keep themselves steady on the window ledge. He was about to lose it.

"Dog.. it's alright." Hunchback looks at Courage with unending rain of tears. "He's not my... friend anymore."

"But! BUT! You can't do this! I don't want you to lose someone you loved just like i did!" The pink dog cried out loud.

"Terry would... not want this." Hunchback told.

"If you let him go, he will be free forever from this nightmare." Shirley told and looked on Courage with a worried expression this time.

Courage whimpered in sadness looking straight into the Tyrant's evil eyes. Behind that face wall of horror and mutated skin it still remained the old innocent Terry, begging to do what is right.

He began to growl with open mouth to chop down Courage's head instead. Seeing this, Courage got startled and loses his grip. The Tyrant felt straight into the lava river only to be ran over by the ongoing building still sliding down the hill approaching the catapult.

"T-Terry..." the old man was crying a waterfall below his old innocent eyes after a painful experience. His leg was now heavily injured. Seeing now that his dog fell to his death, he closed his eyes waiting for everything to end already.

"JUMP!" Scarecrow yelled again. The brigade looked back behind the building seeing the van racing trying to keep up with the church-sleigh. Courage was confused how did he regained fuel but he was unaware about the attic filled with fuel canisters falling outside.

Bigfoot finally jumped with Shirley, Courage and Hunchback out of the building and lands right on the van's roof. Surprisingly it didn't destroyed the roof with his gigantic feet which it was a start. Cause the roof was heavily reinforced with steel armor.

"Thank goodness you repaired the roof before this." Computer told.

With the brigade finally reunited back, they went inside the vehicle, watching the gigantic church hitting the catapult site. The wardogs failed to destroy the incoming building, and they didn't had much time to escape out of the way. They braced themselves to be knocked out and eventually...

_**CRASH!**_

It seems that the Sledgehammer catapult wasn't that very resistant especially when a two tons of heavy metal, cement and wood crippled down to pieces, destroying the entire site. The wardogs were more likely being defeated as well, leaving Nowhere Ruins undefended and liberated!

The Courageous Brigade van pulled to a stop as they finally reached the bottom of the mountain. Everyone got out of the vehicle inspecting the wreckage.

Some time later...

"No food?" Scarecrow asked.

Courage shook his head.

"No water?"

Hunchback pulled out some bottles still filled with water.

"And how did you get gas all of a sudden?" Shirley asked.

"I found them falling out of the building before i went to chase up after you." He explained.

"I see."

Courage together with Bigfoot were smelling on the floor trying to sense any sign of life from Terry in case his mutation saved him somehow. They rummaged through rubble afterwards and Courage has found a broken down necklace collar. Its holy cross was still intact but dirty and a little hot. The pink dog dusted it off even though he flinched from touching it and muttered "Terry..." The dog was lost, however he couldn't help but give it to his old friend at least as a memo.

He quickly ran back to Hunchback and gave it to him. "Here."

The old man stood in shock after recognizing the collar. Bigfoot, Scarecrow, Shirley and Courage looked at him as he squeezed the collar tight on his chest while closing his eyes. He looks at it for a few seconds and a smile formed up on his face. Hunchback has something now to remember about his precious pet, as he puts the holy crossed collar in his pocket.

"Thank you... Courage" Hunchback hugged the pink dog while sniffing and sobbing. He hugs him back in return. The entire team were standing before them letting them for a moment of relief after a wild goose chase.

"I guess, you all have now something to talk about, what happened back there." Scarecrow looked at Bigfoot and Shirley.

"You have no idea." The medium muttered looking at her friends with a little smile on her face as well seeing that they survived once again.

Hunchback and Courage went back inside the vehicle, following by the rest of the team after they have scavenged more scrap and wood. Computer suddenly started to talk again:

"Please, don't tell me that this was your idea of using that building as a sleigh." The machine addressed to Courage.

"You saw it happening, but you didn't see me doing it." The dog replied back in frown. "I hope you were alright all this time. I was worried too about you and Scarecrow" Courage hoped back on the driver's seat. Shirley came as well on the passenger seat, while the other trio went inside the van just so that Hunchback could tell to Scarecrow what happened back there.

"I wasn't able to do anything or react while i was unplugged." Computer said.

"Shall we?" Shirley inquired, to move on.

Courage sighed and started the engine with his stomach growling. The pink dog however went lost in thoughts again about the events of today. From his inner rage reacting again, to a possible salvation turned into sacrifice. What if Courage was in the same condition as Terry the white Tyrant? Would his friends hurt him too for an easy way out? The meteor shock wave could have mutated some animals or humans in the process unless they have survived, that could have tragic consequences or side effects. Unfortunately all the medicine and drugs are no longer existing in these wasteland parts. It is fight for survival after all, no matter what conditions you are granted with after the apocalypse.

He felt really sorry about Hunchback but giving him a 'souvenir' in return to remind him about Terry was truly heart warming and welcomed. Courage wished he had his own pictures back if he was that lucky enough to find Terry's collar.

By the mark of this incident, Nowhere Ruins was liberated! The wardogs or felines are no longer patrolling this region. The remaining survivors can do whatever they like to reconstruct back their lives without too much oppression on their way.

As the brigade van drove away from the mountain, we head back to the church ruins. Two ghosts have appeared staring at the vehicle in the distance. It was the priest again with little Terry on his lap.

"Thank... you... Have a safe... journey. My old friend." The priest smiled refering to Hunchback. Little Terry barked as well before both of them would vanish in thin air. That also caused a black raven to fly away from a tall brick it was standing on.

* * *

**UNHOLY NOWHERE CATHEDRAL DESTROYED**

_** [Nowhere Ruins]**_  
_(Mad Dog's Control = Zero) - (Katz's Control = Zero)_

**[LIBERATED!]**  
_This area is no longer hostile. ...for now._

* * *

**_[Katzville]_**

Heading back to Katz's underground HQ, the red feline felt an unpleasant pain on his back. He was trying to rub harder, but the more he was struggling, the more it gave him pain.

"Ugggghhh... mmmmhhh.." he grunted. "I swear this will be the end of me." He laid down on his chair with his mind going through many thoughts.

"Courage... i wonder if you are indeed... a monster." He gripped his metal paw into a fist. "Hehehehe..."

His yellow eyes were now focused on his bandages covering his torso. After all this time he was fearing that his injuries from the meteor blast could get worse, but instead he kept the bandages just in case his body cuts could get infected. The environment he was living in certainly wasn't comfortable but it was more safe than on the surface.

Even with heavy security, Katz still felt unsafe of himself more than wardogs. He was one of the survivors fearing about the world's atmosphere gone crazy by the shock wave.

"I better not remove these. Come now my loves." His spiders joined him on his chair, as they began making new spider webs for his body since his bandages were starting to wear off.

Katz sighed, starts talking to himself. "Even big leaders have their own weakness."

That's when a warcat busted in his room without a warning and wants to inform his boss about something.

"Where are your manners, man?" Katz asked in a frown look.

"Chief, you won't believe this!"

"This better be good."

"Back in Nowhere, the mountain outpost occupied by dogs was destroyed!"

That perked up Katz widening his eyes staring at the ceiling. "Are you sure of what you have spied?"

"We can attack now, since those so called heroes left the area exposed!"

"No." Katz ordered. " Not until i see Mad Dog buried in his own pile of bones."

"But boss!" The warcat shouldn't provoke his leader more.. That was unwise.

Katz sits up and goes straight into the warcat's eyes even though his face was covered with mask and goggles.

"You say 'but' to me one more time and i'll feed you to my lovelies! Got that?" His spider was crawling on his shoulder expressing a vicious look on the spider's face.

The warcat nodded not daring to say anymore a word. Katz went back to his chair as his loyal warcat left the room. "You did well, Courage." He giggled.

* * *

**THE END of Chapter 7.**


	8. Salvation Or Damnation

_**Author's Note:**_ I felt like i wanted to say even if im busy in reality which that affects my time in writing, i hope this doesn't seem to go off from what i originally wrote in prologue of TCB. First of all, english is not my native language... and second i'm trying my best to write as best as i could regardless of grammar mistakes but you get the idea of details anyhow.

The story itself seems to be quite painful to write but obviously i ain't going to hurt the characters much to a point where everyone dies, cause wtf! Courage and its cast were one of the most childhood memorable chars i've encountered and i hate seeing them suffering in a hostile wasteland just like Mad Max had it rough.  
For the purpose of dramatic entertainment, don't be scared or expecting the worst already. As a fan myself, i have a warm heart for every character out of CTCD cartoon regardless of their horrific situations keeping up the same mood.^^ Continuing on.

* * *

**TCB: Chapter 8: Salvation Or Damnation**

* * *

**_..._**  
**_[Now Leaving -Nowhere Ruins-]_**  
**_..._**

* * *

Few hours later, it was turning dark. Night time emerges.

Not only our wasteland heroes have failed to find something to eat from their last location before leaving Nowhere, but the Courageous Brigade was having a hard time finding a proper path to get around these lava streams still flowing left and right far away from the volcano. They were fearing if they'll reach a dead end unexpectedly. Cause driving straight into the stream would end their journey.

Dehydration will hit them eventually since they were running low on water. Especially when the atmosphere was still hot boiling, the brigade weren't going to give up just yet. As for fuel, they had enough for the road.

Courage on the other hand, was struggling to not let illness get the best of him, even though his inner raging emotion won't let him die either. Somehow the dog felt like a stick ready to snap. His will was telling him to drink some more as he was panting with his tongue out. But his mind was telling him to save some more. Sweating like crazy while driving, he wouldn't be surprised if he would faint from too much heating stress.

His entire body was giving up, his pink fur looked worse than a kitchen sponge and he was all dirty like the rest of his friends, hungry, tired, devastated and now on the urge of passing out. His expression remained the same as a very upset hound trying to finish an objective he never thought he may attempt to achieve. The sight of freedom and recovery. Courage felt like he was going nowhere. So much stress was pouring on the whole team, making themselves wish for a well deserved peace in the end. But for how long?

"_Hehehe... Your precious Muriel is waiting for you!_" The dog began to hear things in his head. Courage shook his head attempting to not faint.

"...leave me be." Courage muttered, just so his friends won't hear him.

Obviously he was losing it. The contact with reality became a challenge for the poor dog as he kept hearing whispers coming out of his mind. Either his raging demon side was trying subdue the innocent personality of his by deluding with wrong assumptions about his owners, or... forcing Courage to let insanity take over him permanently in order to devour anything nearby, including his friends.

'...you're gonna have to do better than that.' Thought Courage. 'My memories aren't gone. And i know Muriel wouldn't want me to hurt anybody.'

_'You already have.'_ The whispers coming out of his ear felt like somebody was truly living inside of his head carving his brain out.

_'You think you can let that dead mutated mutt incident slide?'_ The demon asked.

_'What makes you think that old meatbag would forgive you for such a thing?'_

'... i feel like i'm talking to myself..' Courage thought more. '...please. Leave me alone..' Feeling the urge of knocking his head harder with his fists since he had enough hearing his own self talking, the dog didn't noticed that he couldn't keep a straight line down the road. His friends already took notice of Courage's unusual behavior.

It was unwise to let Courage think of having the power to drive the van in this condition. Computer and Shirley already saw the look of Courage's eyes. Pain, hunger and rage waiting to be triggered. His pink paws were very tight to the steering wheel as if he was about to lose it. His expression was unchanged and determined to help his friends out of this place in one piece at least. Hopefully to reach the next abandoned city or village they seek.

"Courage." Shirley called. "Maybe you should let Scarecrow handle the driving." Since she doesn't know how to drive, the medium won't let Computer do that road madness again. She felt like letting the pink dog rest.

He shook his head and didn't replied. Courage was driving still, not listening to whoever tries to calm him down. He stops panting not taking his eyes off the road.

Dashboard Computer quote. "I'm sure his twit of a friend has done a lot getting us to this point, but this doesn't seem to be the time to switch drivers. Unless you like to stop by and get out for a lava bath, by the way you're about to head off-road, twit."

The pink hound began to growl. Courage knew this would be a huge mistake letting the machine drive this time, cause the vehicle was already running in between two lava streams, but due to dog's condition this affects also his driving concentration.

Courage's eyes were now angrily hooded, head turning red and sweating. Avoiding each river of flames. However in his mind, everything went all broken thoughts. Like how he couldn't save Hunchback's pet Terry, the image of his death was now stuck in his mind. And from that he couldn't help but wonder if he was starting to lose all of his heroics. It became a huge burden. He was supposed to save lives, not losing them! From that depressive thought, he was blaming on his condition and besides that, he accepted the fact that even if he would've saved Hunchback's dog, they obvious had no clue how to cure a permanent mutation.

His stomach was also growling like a tractor demanding food no matter what his brain was telling. Shirley's expression shown full worried with her eyes focused on Courage. She red his feelings, therefor she leaves him be. Knowing how Courage had all the rights to remain silent, it wasn't necessarily to frustrate him more with motivational speeches.

Inside the van, Hunchback was treating his wounded leg bitten from his mutated dog after explaining the whole story to Scarecrow. He was fearing that he would limp now when the old man was about to get up. Still, he was holding up with his cane, but his leg was now broken. Leaning on it would result instant pain. Hunchback pulls out of his pocket his pet's collar just to rethink all of the good past adventures they had before becoming a hobo. With that thought it also increased his respect for Courage, after gifting him the souvenir. Bigfoot was starting to feel sad looking at the ceiling. He wants to find his Mommy back and eat countless types of food like before.

All those happy and memorable moments are now shattered like a broken glass, since the apocalypse is now testing everyone's nerves and survival skills. With such a very low number of population reduced, the brigade hardly ever found anybody on the road or on the wasteland horizon so far. Back in Nowhere, not even a mile they drove and they bumped into several enemy camps. It was fairly decent populated but now they cannot turn back just to resupply on food. That would cost time and fuel.

It went good hours straight of nothing since they left already Nowhere and the team eventually managed to pass the lava streams. Hitting down the normal sandy road at last. Even the atmosphere began to cooldown as the vehicle escaped away from the volcano's range of heat.

Seeing this, Courage's vision began to blur all of a sudden. His paws were shaking and he was starting to lean on the steering wheel.. Suddenly he could hear again voice whispers from Rage Demon out of his mind with a slight headache. But these were very strong and hurting words stressing out Courage more.

...

'_Join me. Let me cure that cowardly side of yours! You can be with Muriel and the farmer again like before!'_

_'You won't suffer like this anymore.'_

_'Think of how much food you can get, as i will guide you through your entire life!'_

_'Nobody will love you the same way Muriel did. Your pathetic friends are using you for their need... cause they know you're not gonna let them down. They will leave for their foolish lives like before, leaving you all alone in this desert of Hell.'_

_'You can't hold me up much longer, let me out and i'll show the true meaning of survival.'_

...

Did Courage heard that very well? That he will be reunited back with his owners? How exactly since they're both dead? The only logical thought, the dog could think of is if he passes out, but knowing how Rage Demon won't let him die, he would more likely want to erase his cowardly personality. Bringing Courage to an absolute illusion making sure the dog has lost forever the contact with reality. And cursed with a fake image of his normal life back at the farm when his owners were still alive.

The dog simply stated. "No." knowing his real intentions.

A few seconds of silence later, his inner distorted emotion voice suddenly fades to do the unimaginable. Buried already in unreal illusions, Courage slowly passes out even though he was struggling to stay awake and keep driving to seek their next destination.

'_Then you'll leave me no choice.'_ Rage demon whispered.

Poor Courage couldn't think straight now after being manipulated from inside, but he was driving still nonetheless. Hungry and exhausted, he couldn't decide if he wants to cry or go mad raging, but his expression was a very sad one until...

His head gave up, closed his eyes and fainted! Courage fell off the driver seat landing on floor pedals.

"Dog!?" Computer's voice went pitch high as a rocket.

"Courage?!" Shirley screamed seeing the pink hound gave his last strength to stay up but the poor dog was already destroyed physically.

"Stop this vehicle, machine! NOW!" The medium demanded with her paws gripped into fists, and Computer listened. The van pulled over.

Their unexpected delay also triggered the other allies's worries. Scarecrow and Bigfoot got out of the van to see what's going on. When Bigfoot gazed the unconscious pink dog, Scarecrow immediately opened the door like a lightning and picks up poor Courage close to him to hear his pulse.

"He's still alive. But not breathing!?" Scarecrow told hearing Courage's weak heartbeat. Bigfoot already was panicking and fearing of their dear friend fighting between life and death. "What happened!?" Hay-made soldier asked.

"He needs serious treatment as soon as possible! The courageous one couldn't stand this much heat and he refused to listen." Shirley quickly explained and shook her head.

"What can we give him? We only have a few bottles of water left for yourselves." Scarecrow quote.

"Give them all..." the old man's voice whispered. "..To the dog." Hunchback told from behind who came after his friends. His old eyes were pointed straight on Courage laid in Scarecrow's hands.

"A-A- Are you sure?" Scarecrow's mouth dropped, even though he doesn't drink or eat but this will surely waste their resources for every ally to save Courage.

"You heard the old one!" Shirley said in a furious tone waving her paw directing the back of the van.

Bigfoot went himself instead immediately, and picked up every bottle of water they had. Scarecrow was pushing with his bare hands onto Courage's chest harder several times to wake him up but with no prevail.

"COME ON! Courage, you are better than this!" Scarecrow yelled! Shirley was now beginning to shed tears with her paws on her mouth, seeing Scarecrow's attempts to bring back Courage alive. What else could she do without magic? Nobody would've love to witness a friend where its life is on stake.

Hunchback proceeds to ask Computer to do something too but then he remembered the machine could tell about their situational awareness of their current location only.

"Hey! Can't you do... anything!?"

"What else can i do besides moving my wheels and acting as a GPS?" Computer asked.

Bigfoot facepalmed for he couldn't take no more of this, he quickly grabbed Courage and in a weird way he started to do mouth-to-mouth breathing technique. That didn't worked either but it left a disgust taste on Bigfoot's end. He should've thought twice of licking the dirty dog as he begins to rub his tounge.

Few moments later...

Courage was still laid down on the ground with his eyes closed and tongue stuck out of his open mouth. He still had a very weak heartbeat. He was surrounded by his friends attempting to wake him up. His ears could still hear a little bit his allies's cries of despair and arguments for why they cannot bring back Courage on his feet.

"AAAARRRUUUUUUUUWWWWUUUU" Bigfoot howled louder for Courage seeing the bright Moon on the sky not caring anymore if anybody else could hear them, even though they were in the middle of the wasteland.

Everything they gave to Courage hasn't solved anything. They were also about to force the water down in Courage's throat too but that would've choke him so they scratched that option.

* * *

No hospitals, no cure, nowhere to seek help, until suddenly Scarecrow decides to get on the wheel himself and starts the engine again instantly. With a desperate tone, he tells his friends to get back inside the van immediately to continue further.

"Come on, everyone. We need to keep moving!" All of the allies with Courage in Bigfoot's arms went back inside and they drove again. Computer however asked in the meantime if they could save Courage somehow.

"Is the dog.. dying? There aren't any hospitals no more and even i cannot search for a nearby location."  
"We'll just go and keep praying. You can't do much either besides reckless driving." Scarecrow told while accelerating faster.  
"Excuse me. But i assume you are already driving recklessly just like when we chased down the other twits before that church was destroyed." Computer said.  
"At least i ain't running into everything in my way. You want Courage to saved, then keep it quiet and update the map!" Scarecrow demanded while gripping the steering wheel.

Meanwhile Hunchback was looking through his telescope again in search of any possible locations up ahead while Courage sits on Bigfoot's lap still unconscious. Shirley sits next to them in pain and tears. It was pointless now to hold up her emotions like before and keep a straight mind, without any magical item and the medium still struggling to recover even her own self, she let her sadness dominate over Courage's state and everyone else's too. The entire team was now desperate.

Bigfoot muttered something into the dog's ears at least in a way that the big guy truly wants his friend back alive and healthy again. As for our little poor pink hound, only the sound of his heartbeat kept him alive during his "sleep". Their vehicle ran faster as they could, eventually they were no longer able to spot Nowhere behind them, and Scarecrow doesn't seem to take kindly anymore to any hostile guests in their way preventing from saving Courage.

Except for one thing... birds.

One raven flew across the road as they drove, and another one. Scarecrow started to have unpleasant memories while wishing he would not experience the same thing with crows like before. After a few moments, the skies seem to roaming with them until Dashboard Computer spoke, "These pesky ravens just don't leave us alone. Are you afraid of them?"

"Does it look like i am afraid?" Annoyed Scarecrow asked.

"Judging by your sudden turns to left and right every time a raven flies by, i'd say it is quite understandable."

He didn't replied but muttered something instead about cursing himself while accepting the truth.

"Hold up, i detect something strange on the roads again. I hope we're not in a minefield aga- ..." Computer didn't finished quite his sentence when they just witnessed a surprise trap.

Spike strips have popped out of the ground in front of them! Just an inch closer to its front wheels.

That startled the entire team when everyone heard the pop sounds of flat tires. At least the rear wagon wheels were made out of wood, resulting a slight bump over the spikes. Both front tires got flat immobilizing the whole van forcing to stop again.

The brigade went out except for Bigfoot and Courage, seeing now they had nowhere to go without a new set of tires, that left Scarecrow an enraging mood. He punched with full force the ground in frustration while growling.

"What do we do... now?" Hunchback asked very sad.

"I suppose this is where it ends our trip. We'll just wait for these ravens to devour us." Computer told, as they heard the birds croaking.

"You're a foolish machine. How can they devour you?" Shirley asked while looking up in the sky.

"Seeing as i have no spare wheels, being turned into a bird house is what i can expect." The machine told. Hunchback rolled his eyes.

However the birds weren't going to attack them yet. The team watched them up on the sky flying, surrounding them while croaking as if they were making a call. Not a moment too soon a mysterious vehicle approaches in front of the allies from the distance.

"Hey, what's that?" Hunchback asked, he spotted the glooming headlights out of strange vehicle.

It didn't seem to look like one of Katz's goons or MD's wardogs, but it sure had black feathers attached on the back of the rusty car. On its hood it was the same symbol decal the other silver hot rod had when it was blasted to smitereens in that sandstorm. Flames were coming out of their exhaust pipes. Followed by a few other cars heeding the croaking noise. Very distinctive of their faction.

It started to honk on them, making the ravens to fly away from the brigade's van. Courage's friends stood still watching the group of raven bandits approaching them. Scarecrow already risen up his arms into fists preparing the defend their vehicle and their beloved friend suffering. Hunchback and Shirley did the same thing taking out their means of defense they had. Bigfoot stood only in shock hidden inside the van with Courage in his arms expecting the worst.

The bandit vehicles pulled over, in particular the leader in front of the others opened the door and much to the brigade's surprise it came out a medium-sized stranger dressed in a dirty black cloak. With a beak exposed and without hesitation, it pulled out a lever-action rifle pointing straight at the brigade.

Courage's allies remained at their spots not daring to make a move or sound waiting to see if the bandit stranger reacts first. Shirley's eyes were pointed straight on the rifle's trigger while Scarecrow and Hunchback were focused on the stranger's company behind him. Computer of course, didn't had manners to remain silent when he suddenly asked:

"Who are you-" The moment when Computer spoke, his front headlight was blasted by the bandit's rifle. Well, that did it. The team ducked by that shot and Computer couldn't knew that the bandit may not be gentle either.

"Keep it... quiet!" Hunchback whispered looking at the machine.

"I'm asking questions around here!" The bandit leader finally spoke. It sounded very female.

Even though her black cloak was covered in dirt and sand, her wing holding up her weapon was pretty damaged with ruffled feathers. Her front beak exposed shown battle scars. She revealed herself by letting down her hood and that left the entire team stoned.

It was a little black raven lady with big round eyes and long feathers, carrying ammo belt, giving a cold stare at the brigade not letting down her rifle from their sight. Her teammates also gone out of their cars still looking as if they were out to war running towards Courage's allies. They have surrounded the area pointing with their guns at them from every direction giving the brigade no means of escape. The bandits were dressed almost like bounty hunters.

All of the allies looked at them carefully, until the bird lady spoke again.

"Now you boys tell me..." her voice seems to express a little bit of mercy at first. "Tell me why i shouldn't lay a few bullets right in between your eyes."

Hunchback stood in front with full bravery even though that left his friends in awe while being surrounded.

"P-Please... w-we're not here to cause harm... We need help." The old man spoke with his hands up and Eustace's mask still holding it as well.

"Help?" The bandit girl asked. "You runts barged into our territory, how do we know if you're not some cheeky-eye filthy trash eater sent by Mad Dog?"

"We're not loyalists of that troublesome dog!" Scarecrow added.

The raven lady rises up her rifle and fired in the air. Startled by that shot, she spoke:

"If that ain't the most insulting lie i have ever heard from you... I can shoot you right now, buddy." Her eyes fixed upon Scarecrow while her voice seemed to fit of an old western outlaw.

Shirley thought for a moment and she remembered the hot rod with ravens that were chasing them was blown away back in that sandstorm.

"Actually..." The medium spoke. "It was not by our own hands that your friends were committed into a dangerous mission to chase us resulting their death by the weather."

"That's not what i heard." Her weapon was still fixed upon Scarecrow. "If you varmints didn't drove that wagon of yours in a more menacing way, pushing our..." she paused for a moment." ... children... up in the skies of the all mighty God of Destruction... i would've believed it."

The team set their blaming eyes upon Computer. "Oh, don't you start with me again." The machine told.

"What do you know, is somebody else inside that wagon of yours?" From the bandit's question that perked up Bigfoot still hiding and protecting Courage in his lap. The big guy was shaking in fear which is understandable.

"Does it really matter much to you?" Scarecrow asked.

"Get them." She ordered. The other bandit birds were approaching the vehicle. "If you boys want to live, hand over the loot. Then you can go back where you came from!"

"You'll have to get through me first!" Scarecrow stood in front with his fists angered. Hunchback stands back being afraid.

"Look, we understand your situation." Shirley tries to calm down the spirits. Her paw reached Scarecrow's fist to lay down. "There's no need for all of us to engage in a brawl while our fearsome enemy advances through out the remains of this wretched world. If we were indeed the big stupid dog's henchmen, we would have caused harm to you first before questioning."

Dashboard Computer spoke as well. "And besides that, those children of yours were sucked immediately by the wind storm. All we did was self-defense if we had to avoid any lightning strikes converging on our trip. I thought you birds were supposed to fly? Not shoot and drive?"

"This ain't none of your business, whoever you are. If you can't come on out with your hands up, somebody won't be able to drive either!" She pointed her gun at the vehicle.

"I am the vehicle." Computer spoke.

Time was running out. The brigade had to think faster of how to get past these raven bandits not letting them go further. Courage's life was on stake and all could Bigfoot ever do is keeping Courage warm and safe in his furry lap.

"Is she even got a name?" Computer asked Hunchback quietly.

"Vesha." She answered. "And that'll be the last time you'll ever hear my name, sack of potatoes!" She had a quite mouth on her as well. Unaware that Computer asked but believing that the old man did.

"I didn't spoke!" Hunchback shook his head with his hands up still.  
"Do we have to do this the easy way or the hard way?" Vesha asked.

The bandit girl then stood in silence looking at Shirley and thought for a moment about what the medium just said earlier, she rises her broken wing up for a halt. Her bandit comrades stopped from reaching the brigade's van. She then gave the brigade a moment for a proper conversation.

"But i suppose.." Vesha spoke. "You all don't look like belonging to Mad Dog." The raven lady rises an eye brow inspecting the brigade. "What are you all doing in our patch anyway?"

"We were just passing by." Scarecrow told. "We didn't even know this is your territory, and we have a friend that is seriously in need of assistance." He points the back of the van referring to Courage.

"Where are we then... if you could be so kind... to lower that... boomstick?" Hunchback barely asked with his hands left up and shaking seeing the rifle in her hands.

"Elsewhere." Vesha answered the village name. "You varmints aren't very far from our settlement. "

The team felt relieved for a second.

"Still. Doesn't mean you boys could be bird eaters like that skinny red cat trying to go easy on us, huh?" She gave a very suspicious look on her eyes towards the team.

The brigade really wanted to advance forward but with the raven bandits in their way, it was hard to convince them that they weren't really the bad guys. Inside the van, Courage still was laid unconscious, his heartbeat was still weak but for how long will it go without breathing, it was only matter of time before a miracle strikes upon everyone of them.

"I've been fooled once, there won't be a second time." Vesha told. "And i have absolutely no time to deal with dirty varmints invading our homeland." She reloads her rifle.

"Please..! We're sorry!" Hunchback sits on his knees begging.

"I suppose you bird bandits don't negotiate either without bulletspraying." Computer told.

"Wise words, wherever you're hiding, partner." The bandit leader told. "Time for all of you to meet your maker."

Shirley stood calm, looking straight into Vesha's eyes. This time the bandit was losing her patience showing a bit of anger in her eyes. She could tell she was only defending their homeland but no means of shooting anything else except for goons from MD or Katz. The reason why, is because her broken wing was twitching. Yet she was now believing that the brigade were Katz's spies.

"You will not shoot us." The green medium told.

"Oh i will!" The bandit replied.

"Are you serious?!" Scarecrow asked Shirley.

"Look at yourself, you foolish child." Not only she called the bandit like that, but the brigade left their jaws dropped expecting a warzone happening after Shirley's speech.

"Would you consider wasting your last means of defense and protection on helpless survivors like us just to fulfill your enjoyment or trying to rise up some morale?" The medium asked.

Vesha softly growled. She felt insulted but at the same time she was about to discover her wrong doings.

"Miss medium!" Scarecrow called her out quietly before anything can go south from here.

"We have no loot." Hunchback added. "That evil dog... took everything from us!"

"Only pain is cursing through your veins and fear shines upon your ruffled feathers." Shirley told. "You may lay that bullet on whoever you like. And more likely becoming one of the big stupid dog's company by their side. Is that what you want?"

"S-Shut up! I ain't scared of you!" Vesha barely spoke while trembling.

The other raven bandits were looking at them each other stunned by those words of wisdom, and confused at the same time whether they should attack or not. Their leader on the other hand, was shaking uncontrollably and sweating not knowing what else to do beside pulling the trigger. Vesha didn't want to be like MD either but anyhow shooting now one of Courage's ally would dishonor their tribe and rising bad karma.

She was about to shoot the medium square in the head, until suddenly Bigfoot came out of vehicle.

Everyone was now watching Bigfoot walking slowly to join his friends outside surrounded by raven bandits. Poor Courage was still in his hands but the big guy's expression was somehow changed. He wasn't scared anymore. The other allies were thinking what was he even doing? He was supposed to remain inside and protect Courage. But Bigfoot was giving a serious look on the bandit girl still shaking with her weapon.

A small growling grin can be seen on Bigfoot's face, until he opens his mouth wide-open and roars the hell out of the entire area surrounding him. It was insanely loud that the ground began to shake. Still not even that woke Courage up, but the brigade had to plug their ears, while the bird bandits screamed in both terror and regret.

Vesha gasped. She dropped her weapon. The other bandits laid down their weapons as well. They were looking straight at Bigfoot like he was some sort of idol.

"I...I... This... This can't... This cannot be..!" Vesha barely spoke with eyes widen in shock. She drops herself on her knees. Bigfoot remained frustrated and still growling but his loud roar meant that he desperately needs to help Courage and get a move on.

"It's the Guardian himself! Our true protector!" Vesha vouched for Bigfoot. Bowing down with her wings on the ground.

The allies were now confused about this but it seems the bandits knew well the big guy. "Guardian? What do you mean?" Scarecrow asked.  
Vesha quote: "This all mighty creature with big hairy feet and furry beard that rises terror upon anybody who seeks our demise, our true protector, who scared off away the red feline's wretched goons when we were in highly danger, gave us the skill to defend our homeland from those enraging mutts, he.. is ... your friend!?" She gets up from bowing and feeling now sorry.

"Okay, she is crazy now." Computer quote. "Shush!" Scarecrow shushed him.

Vesha gets closer to allies especially Bigfoot "H-How could this be?" Her eyes were fixed now on Courage. "I d-don't understand. You protect dogs too?"

"It is what...we're trying to explain." Hunchback told. "We're not evil." And Scarecrow added "And we'll never be, nor betraying anyone."

Shirley continued "You may stand with the conclusion that every dog or cat is bad, but of course there are those who aren't willingly to live under oppression or become a savage."

"So we now are asking you this." Computer added as well even though that left Vesha stunned like a rock "Can you bandits leave us alone so we can think of how to get a move on?"

The raven bandits along with Vesha stood a few seconds in thoughts until their leader looked again on Courage and Bigfoot in which she firstly hesitated to speak but in a way of apologizing for the ambush and rude behavior, Vesha told...

"You're not going anywhere, varmints."

The entire brigade except Courage gasped and screamed "What!?"

"...not with this bucket of bolts." She described their vehicle in bad condition.  
"Hey!" Computer felt insulted.  
"Come with us. If you still need help to cross over The Jaw." Vesha turned herself around pointing her wing in the horizon west side of Elsewhere.

"The Jaw?" Computer asked.

"You all want to head over to Mad Dog, right?" The bandit lady tells more about their current land in danger. "You see, we tried ourselves trying to break The Jaw held by those dirty wardogs always hunting us like we even look delicious to them!"

"What is The Jaw?" Scarecrow asked.

Vesha sighed "The gates you have to pass to reach Bulletown. They have more intel about what you may looking out for in these wasteland parts. But i don't guarantee they may be accurate. Some dogs are lying bastards! We tried to even fly over them but boy oh boy... these suckers do know well about aiming.."

That explains her wing wounds. It seems the gates are more controlled of an elite type of wardog enemy.  
"I never seen a pink dog before like that." One of the raven bandits told in the background after looking at Courage.

Shirley told "Now we are in serious need of a place to stay before we can go again. If what you have told is true we can't move like this." Other allies nodded. "Do you have... space for us?" Hunchback asked kindly.

The bandit leader whistled. Her comrades came with their vehicles ready to hook their van out of the spike strip trap. "Ouch." Computer felt the pointy hook attached to the front bumper. Every raven bandit returned back to their respective yet oddly looking vehicles made out of scrap to return back to Elsewhere.

Before Vesha and her companions could start dragging the brigade's van she quote "I gotta say, you varmints do look like you got some decent survival skills." The allies on the other hand, looked on each other devastated more than optimistic of how far they made.

"FOR OUR GUARDIAN!" She shouted for Bigfoot. The bandits shouted after her. But the big guy hardly cared about them. Poor Courage was every ally's best concern. The pink dog's condition seems to be lifted up a little bit, he was showing signs of heavy breathing. Hardly even inhaling air but his heart was still pumping thankfully.

"Get you boys back into you car! We'll pull you from that!" Vesha yelled, and the allies listened.

"Not too rough, you hear me?" Computer told after feeling his front bumper being now pulled over until Vesha didn't matter to her as she hit the gas, pulling the brigade van in an instant. "Ugh! Why do i even bother?"

The convoy of raven bandits were driving in a formation with Vesha as the leader of the pack while behind her was the tow truck driven by a bandit with the brigade van attached to it, behind them were the rest of the bandits covering the sides and rear as they all were going to Elsewhere.

The courageous brigade obviously had no idea of how would be the hospitality offered by a pack of wild raven bandits or how Elsewhere would look like. Maybe they're living in tall trees? The allies were discussing inside the van and felt really nervous and tired as well.

"Do they really know you, big guy?" Scarecrow asked Bigfoot, but he shrugged.

"Maybe... cause of how you went far away from your home, you might have somehow helped them without intention." The medium tells her thoughts she remembered what Courage told them about him.

"I don't think it is even wise to trust these birds." Computer told.

"We have no choice either." Scarecrow told.

"If we need to reach the big stupid dog, these bandits are our only option. Besides, the courageous one needs more help than we do. If anything would go bad for us with that child of a bird, we either run away or getting shot at. But after i examined her emotions towards Bigfoot, i think these bandits would need our help as well more likely." Shirley told.

The medium's statement never went lost. The fact that these bandits offered to help the brigade would more likely turn into a thing the other way around too. Given the fact that Vesha may have looked very rude from the outside, she only did that to defend their home, but now seeing Bigfoot's return after the apocalypse, Vesha could probably share everything they have with her idol, allowing the brigade to recover themselves. And with hopes up of receiving about what they know about these parts of these wastelands could help the Courageous Brigade survive even more.

Hunchback felt like he had a headache and was starting to lean down on his cane. "Oooooh.. hope we get... some food."  
"Hang on Courage." Scarecrow whispered placing his arm patting the dog's head. "We'll get through this." The other allies look at him as well especially Bigfoot not letting go of Courage from his arms. What fine and overprotective this big monster is.

* * *

Meanwhile...

**_Somewhere, M.D's Territory_**

Very... very... far away... ruins of outnumbered destroyed villages or cities can be seen until the smell of blood and flesh were dominating the air of this horrific land, the skies were truly dark red and black with lightnings and thunder booming over Mad Dog's citadel built exactly at the center of the meteor crash crater.  
Heavily guarded by the best high-ranking dog officers and wardog mercenaries controlling each part of the city. This was like Heaven... or Hell for every race of vicious dogs liking to let their rage take over and devour every prade they would find or invade the city. Biting first then ask questions later.  
The citadel layout was like a fortress with at least six guard towers while at the front gates, heavy cargo transports could come in and get out. Around the citadel was an acidic green lake with radioactive serpent skeletons swimming around the fortress. The never-ending barking of angry dogs can be heard from miles away within Somewhere's range.

Heading over to Mad Dog's lair we can hear sounds of an enraging mutated dog, punching over and over the walls and barking like crazy.

"Grrrr..." M.D. growled. "Where... JUST WHERE!?" The wardog lord almost pulled out his throne in fury. Until eventually he tries to calm himself down a bit, but that was hard without Bunny's heart next to him."I should've had Bunny by now! Over hundreds of places destroyed and still NOTHING!" He rests back on his double-bed of luxury but still in bad shape due to signs of clawing, punching and biting.

His bedroom looked more like a war was going on, Mad Dog doesn't seem to find his truly peace on Earth until he proclaims what's is his. Never thinking of giving up on his search for Bunny. A wardog officer knocks on his door. "Sir!"

Mad Dog paused from his raging and answered "WHAT?!" The officer gave him a letter. MD looked a bit concerned about it. He snatches the letter and closes the door. He sniffs it and opens the envelope. On the letter...

...it revealed about Nowhere being liberated and the huge number of casualties...

His sharp nails pierces through the letter shredding it to pieces while growling. His blood was boiling through his massive fists.

Howling louder it sounded like a furious thunder startling every personnel and survivor slave around the citadel.

* * *

**THE END Of Chapter 8.**


End file.
